Can you factor this? If you're like most people, you get a little queasy at the thought. And when you were in tenth grade, you surely wondered why they were bothering you.(the answer is (x-2) times (x-2), in case you were curious.)It turns out that the real reason you needed to do this work was to be able to play with numbers in your head. Abstract numerical thought is an important skill among educated people.Which brings us to TED, a conference held every year in Long Beach. It's going on right now. Watch a few TED videos and try to get ahead of the speaker. They have an idea...it's probably…
Selected by mikeramm
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Seth's Blog
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TEDthink
9 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am -
Frightened, clueless or uninformed?
8 Feb 2010 | 2:57 amIn the face of significant change and opportunity, people are often one of the three. If you're going to be of assistance, it helps to know which one.Uninformed people need information and insight in order to figure out what to do next. They are approaching the problem with optimism and calm, but they need to be taught. Uninformed is not a pejorative term, it's a temporary state.Clueless people don't know what to do and they don't know that they don't know what to do. They don't know the right questions to ask. Giving them instructions is insufficient. First, they need to be sold on what the… -
The least I could do
7 Feb 2010 | 3:35 amOne way to think about running a successful business is to figure out what the least you can do is, and do that. That's actually what they spent most of my time at business school teaching me.No sense putting more on that pizza, sending more staff to that event, answering the phone in fewer rings... what's the point? No sense being kind, looking people in the eye, being open or welcoming or grateful. Doing the least acceptable amount is the way to maximize short term profit.Of course, there's a different strategy, a crazy alternative that seems to work: do the most you can do instead of the… -
iPad app of my dreams: the digital talking pad
6 Feb 2010 | 8:10 amHere's the spec. If you build it and it's great, I'll use it and I'll blog it.A while ago, I posted about the talking pad and a modern version of it.I think there's a killer app version of this for the iPad, and I hope someone will build it. The talking pad is an interactive presentation tool for smart people.OverviewIt's a very simple concept: a collection of pages (slides, images, type, let's call them pages) that are easy to navigate in a non-linear way. Along with the standard zoom features, I'd like to be able to write on any of them in real time using my finger. I can also call up, on… -
The relentless search for "tell me what to do"
6 Feb 2010 | 2:26 amIf you've ever hired or managed or taught, you know the feeling.People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: "If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I'm safe."When asked, resist.
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Guy Kawasaki
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How to Avoid Gullibility
8 Feb 2010 | 3:45 pmWe’ve all been sucked into doing something stupid, right? Fortunately, Steven Greenspan has written a book called Annals of Gullibility. In its conclusion he explains how to avoid gullibility, and I’ve provided a synopsis for you. Read the full story at the American Express Open Forum. More on psychology if you need the advice. -
How to Be Empathetic
4 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pmBy definition, good marketers are empathetic. That is, they have a capacity to understand and care for the needs of others. Bruna Martinuzzi explains how to be empathetic over at the American Express Open Forum. -
How to Not Be Annoying on Twitter
4 Feb 2010 | 10:19 pmAmber MacArthur explains how to not be annoying on Twitter over at the American Express Open Forum. Sage advice for you to develop a great reputation and following on Twitter. More Twitter tips. -
The Elements of Guyle: British Blogging
27 Jan 2010 | 10:06 pmWant to make your blog classier? You should blog like a Brit. I explain how to do this in ten easy steps. -
How to follow the Apple announcement
27 Jan 2010 | 7:56 amFollow the Apple announcement at Apple.alltop. We aggregate over 200 sources there.
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Freelance Switch
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4 Ways to Kill Scope Creep
9 Feb 2010 | 4:30 amSome clients just keep asking for a little more: a four page website design can turn into a design plus copy or even a design plus copy plus marketing. It often happens just a little request at a time, as the scope of the project creeps ever larger. Scope creep isn’t always an entirely bad thing, of course. As long as your clients are willing to pay for the work that goes along with a bigger project, it can be beneficial. Depending on the situation, there are several responses you can offer to a client with a case of scope creep.1. Glad to help — here’s a new estimateIf you can… -
Freelance Freedom #142
8 Feb 2010 | 4:30 am -
From the Community: Advice for New Freelancers
5 Feb 2010 | 4:30 amRecently, the FreelanceSwitch community was asked what simple, one-line advice they would give newly minted freelancers. The result was a surprising and poignant mix of wisdom, humor, and insight on topics such as clients, money, marketing, and keeping one’s sanity. Read on for the best advice from the FreelanceSwitch community! It’s a not so well-kept secret that the FreelanceSwitch community forums are filled with experts and seasoned freelancers of every make and specialization. But everyone had to start somewhere! Being a new freelancer can be an exercise in hard lessons… -
Automate Your Bookkeeping
4 Feb 2010 | 4:30 amAs a freelancer, it’s important to focus as much of your time as possible on the work you have or getting the work you need. And that means minimizing administrative tasks. Take bookkeeping, for example.Bookkeeping is critical for maximizing tax deductions and monitoring the overall health of your business, but it’s a royal pain. In this post I’ll show you how to automate bookkeeping tasks so you can stay focused on existing jobs while marketing your talents.Decide on a bookkeeping systemMany people still hand-write their income and expenses in a notebook or Excel… -
7 Elements of a Successful Freelancer’s Website
3 Feb 2010 | 4:30 am“The shoemaker’s children go barefoot.”You’re not a shoemaker but the saying still fits. Between client projects, conferences, and social obligations (okay, okay, WOW clan meetings may count as social obligations), your site has been sorely neglected. A neglected website might not seem like a big deal if you’re flush with work. But what happens when, Zeus forbid, work slows? You’ll start pushing for new work, realize that your site is a mess, and spend time working on your site you should have spent landing new contracts.As a reminder for the veterans and a…
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Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist
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Check-up for self-delusion
7 Feb 2010 | 9:41 pmIt’s unbelievable to me that everyone continues to watch football when we know that men are getting genuinely, permanently, brain damaged. The game is tantamount to cockfighting, only with people instead of animals. The NFL has finally admitted the problem, to the extent it is poised to be the largest funding source for research about trauma to the brain. But still, the game encourages brain trauma. And people cheer. I can understand if it’s like smoking. You’re addicted, you can’t stop. But what about bringing your kids to the game? What about all the people who make the Superbowl a… -
Chat with me tonight, live, via video.
3 Feb 2010 | 7:43 amIs this even a good headline for a blog post? I don't know. Do you want to know what I'm like unedited? Read this blog post. I never post unedited, but my editor has a day job, and he has no time to deal with manufactured emergencies like this one, so I'm just posting this post as is. I'm supposed to be doing a web chat thing tonight. I had this idea that this would be a good format for me. And I had this idea that I could stick to a schedule. But look. It's the day of my video chat and I have not even announced it. Because I'm nervous. I'm nervous about a… -
Frugality is a career tool
1 Feb 2010 | 11:02 amI have earned a lot of money in my life. But I have never had an extravagant life. I don’t own a house. I’ve never bought a new car. I’ve never bought a new piece of living room furniture, and I do not own a single piece of real jewelry. What I have spent money on was always intended to help me with my career. That was so I know that I can always earn money doing something I love. I leased a BMW when it was clear that that mattered when it came to making deals in LA. I hired a stylist when I realized my clothes were holding me back in NYC. In Madison I have tons of household help so my… -
Being an expert takes time, not talent
28 Jan 2010 | 9:39 pmI've been walking around with the July/August 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review constantly, for close to three years. Sometimes, if I’m getting on a plane, I’ll put it with the other heavy stuff into my luggage, and then get it out later. When my last car broke down in the middle of an intersection, I got the magazine out of the trunk before I abandoned the car. The article that I’m attached to is The Making of an Expert by Anders Ericsson, Michael Prietula and Edward Cokely. I would not normally bother to tell you all three authors for one article in my blog. This is not a… -
Workplace news you cannot use
25 Jan 2010 | 8:23 pmI collect data points constantly, and I index them by topic, and I always hope that they will come together in an interesting, useful way. Lots of times, that doesn’t happen, and I just have to throw ideas away, because I have a rule for myself that I have to be useful in every post. But today I’m trying something new. I’m doing a post that is useless to you. Here are four ideas I was just about to toss out as incurably useless, but instead, I bring them to you: 1. Law firms are making concessions for women. One of the top law firms in the world, Allen Overy, just announced they are…
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Escape from Cubicle Nation
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How do you want to lead your life?
8 Feb 2010 | 5:30 pmI had a very interesting coaching conversation the other day with a bright young woman. We were talking about her desire to expand her business and play bigger in the world. (And don’t worry, I asked her permission to tell this story. And no, that is not her picture, it is a stock photo ) When I asked what would happen if she started to put herself out in the world in a bigger way by offering more programs and connecting with more people, she got kind of quiet. I asked her what it would mean to her life if she grew her business. This is what she said: “I would have to be out… -
Your all-or-nothing attitude will bring all stress and no progress
2 Feb 2010 | 5:08 pmI can always tell when new entrepreneurs are starting to crack under the pressure of decisions. They say things like: “I know everyone tells me I have to choose a specific niche, but I really don’t want to limit myself to only working with one type of person!” “What if I spend all this time and energy getting this business off the ground and I find out (no one will buy from me) (I don’t like it) (I have no time) (fill in the concern).” “The URL for the business name I wanted is not available! How can I be successful without a catchy business… -
Question for you: what stops you from testing your biz ideas early? What helps?
28 Jan 2010 | 1:26 pmI am really obsessed with the topic of test often and fail fast. I wrote a whole chapter about it in my book, and still feel like I barely scratched the surface. By “test often and fail fast,” I mean the ability to create a very small prototype or sample of your product or service and get it in front of your target market for feedback. So many new entrepreneurs get paralyzed with perfectionism. And you know what I feel about that! I am writing an article on this topic, and would love your insight into two questions (choose either or both, depending on which apply to your… -
Guest post by Seth Godin: You are not a cog
26 Jan 2010 | 3:00 amI have never had a guest post on my blog before. Until now. Seth Godin wrote a special post for EfCN to celebrate the launch of his new book Linchpin. It comes out today — check it out here. You are not a cog If you have your own business, you’ve already taken a huge step, but it’s tempting, really tempting to let fear take over and let it push you to start following the rule book. You know the rule book I mean. The one with the musts, the shoulds and the of courses in it. The one that’s amplified by most how-to books and blogs, and enforced by banks, in-laws and… -
Registration now open for $100 Business with me and Chris Guillebeau
18 Jan 2010 | 7:01 amGood morning! I am excited to give you the registration link for the program I told you about last week that I am co-teaching with Chris Guillebeau. We will be working intensively with an inaugural group in a month-long program aimed to power-charge your micro business. See all the details here, and if you are interested, grab a seat, because I have a feeling they will go fast. http://unconventionalguides.com/100biz.htm Here is to a fantastic, supportive start to 2010! — Update 5pm MT on 1/18: We had an amazing day — we sold out the February program in 3 hours, and are halfway…
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Bob Sutton
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Let's Invent a New Word or Phrase: What do you call someone who "opts out of participating in something but then complains about the outcome."
6 Feb 2010 | 11:37 amThis question came in an email yesterday from Mozilla's Asa Dotzler, who is renowned for his skill as an open-source marketer, especially in spreading the Firefox browser. The engine that propels any open source community is having a wide range of smart and hardworking people who generate and refine solutions, and are eager to step in and fix them when things go wrong. So maintaining norms that encourage people to participate in generating solutions and making decisions-- rather than those who don't pitch in or help make decisions but always complain bitterly about the… -
IDEO CEO Tim Brown: "I found it vaguely embarrassing and frustrating to be in an office."
4 Feb 2010 | 1:13 pmI have argued in the past that there are a lot of evidence-based disadvantages to working in an open office, as there are many more interruptions, distractions, and other stressors --- and of course less privacy. And there are quite a few studies that show when people move from closed to open office designs, they don't like it all and their productivity sometimes drops. I had an experience a few weeks back, however, that has me questioning the limits of this research -- and believing that if an organization has the right norms, leadership, and especially collective… -
What a Mess: The Tenure Appeal Meeting at Ohio University
1 Feb 2010 | 1:33 pmI got a comment this morning about the outcome of the the appeal meeting at Ohio University for Bill Reader's tenure case. You may recall that I wrote about this in detail in my post on The No Asshole Rule Versus Compassion for the Mentally Ill. The meeting appears to have been an ugly scene. According to the report in the school paper:"A standing-room-only crowd of students and faculty members in Baker University Center 219 heard Dean Greg Shepherd and Director Tom Hodson defend their decision to deny Reader tenure, calling him a non-collegial bully incapable of… -
I Am Now Blogging at Psychology Today
1 Feb 2010 | 11:43 amI just started blogging at Psychology Today last week. This page and blog will remain the place where I put the lion's share of my effort. Most of my posts will appear here first, and then I will reprint some of them there to reach a different audience. The name of my blog there is Work Matters: Straight Talk and Solid Evidence About Organizational Life. I also will let you know when I write anything in Psychology Today that is now printed here. For starters, I thought a good way to introduce myself to Psychology Today readers was to introduce them to a range… -
You Know It Is Snake Oil When They Say That It Explains 75% of Success in Life
24 Jan 2010 | 12:26 pmI clearly have strong beliefs about what drives human behavior, and think there is pretty strong evidence to support many of them. At the same time, I believe equally strongly that there are no magical cures for organizational and individual problems, or any one theory that explains all human behavior. Behavioral scientists battle over these issues -- and they should, it leads to better evidence -- over things like nature versus nurture, extrinsic versus intrinsic rewards, cognition versus emotion, and on and on, and each of us -- me too -- is probably unduly biased in favor of our pet…
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Business Pundit
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Obama’s Tax Breaks and Outsourcing
9 Feb 2010 | 10:00 amImage source This is a guest post by Jacob Cherian of SourcingLine. In a recent statement, President Barack Obama implied that he would cut tax breaks to companies offshoring jobs overseas. It appears the move is to arrest the outflow of jobs from the U.S. But analysts are not sure if this new regulation will have the desired impact. If the U.S. does not allow for offshoring costs to be accounted as expenses in balance sheets, U.S. firms will likely see their offshoring costs go up by about 35-40 percent. That sounds like a steep rise, but in actuality it is not. For instance, the cost of… -
The 12 Most Valuable Teams in NCAA Football
9 Feb 2010 | 9:46 amShare Football has long been America’s most popular sport. While baseball is the American pastime and holds a special place in the hearts of sports fans, it has yet to surpass football in terms of either broad appeal or revenues. Nor is the National Football League the only beneficiary of football’s enduring popularity. Indeed, in parts of the country with unsuccessful NFL teams (or no NFL teams), college football is just as popular – and just as lucrative. Likewise, an accomplished head coach at a prestigious college program can easily command several million dollars per… -
Toyota Reluctantly Recalls Prius Hybrids
9 Feb 2010 | 6:39 amIn light of increased government scrutiny of its cars, Toyota has announced a worldwide recall of its Prius hybrids. The Wall Street Journal reports: Toyota’s quality chief Shinichi Sasaki said at a press conference (in Japan) that the problematic brake systems in the recalled cars “meet safety standards,” a comment implying the company isn’t required legally to recall the vehicles. But Toyota decided to take action and update software that controls the brake system in order to “be in accordance with the spirit” of those standards, Mr. Sasaki said. Many at… -
An Unfortunate Toyota Tagline
9 Feb 2010 | 3:10 am -
The 25 Worst Infomercials Ever
8 Feb 2010 | 8:15 amInfomercials captivate. That’s their job. If they hold your attention long enough, you might find yourself picking up the phone and ordering that tomato peeler, talking dog collar, or remote-controlled bathroom caddy. Yet some infomercials leave you scratching your head in amazement. Are they really trying to sell this stuff? We collected 25 of the worst-ever infomercials, for your viewing pleasure. 25. The Shake Weight for Men If you hate working out for hours at the gym, the Shake Weight for Men can get you, um, ripped in just 6 minutes a day. 24. The Potty Putter There’s no…
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scottberkun.com
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The future of UI – interview on CBC
29 Jan 2010 | 9:21 amThe folks at CBC’s Spark show interviewed me about the future of UI, and the boring post. Good stuff on innovation, ui design, whether I’m a curmudgeon or not, the Ipad and more. ~10:00 long. To listen: Go to the The future of UI interview on CBC’s website. Use the raw mp3 link to play in your browser -
Should Americans get more vacation?
27 Jan 2010 | 2:14 pmIn a series of posts, called readers choice, I write on whatever topics people submit and vote for. If you dig this idea, let me know if the comments, and submit your ideas and votes. This week’s reader’s choice post: What’s the impact of 60 hour work weeks and only 2 weeks of vacation on American companies? (submitted by Lynn – thx!) The running joke at any big corporation is the phrase ‘work/life balance‘. Anywhere that needs to make a special phrase like this is by definition a place populated by workaholics. You’d never hear people talk about… -
Twitter reconsidered
26 Jan 2010 | 10:22 amI wrote a post in June of 2009 called Calling Bullshit on Social Media. The goal of the post was to put twitter, and facebook, into an honest perspective, given all the hype and idiocy surrounding the phrase social media. It was picked up all over, as echo-chamber articles about social media often are, and has well over 100 comments and links to it. In the six months since then my use of twitter has increased, warranting a follow up post. I don’t retract what I said – but now I have more experience to explore similiar points. Stats: I’ve been on twitter for 7 months. My…
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Life Beyond Code
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The Distinguish Cycle – Where do you want to begin?
9 Feb 2010 | 12:01 amFor those of you who have reading this blog for a while, you know that one of the themes on the blog is how to escape the prison of commodotization – being one of the many. Why? Simply because commodotization erodes value. If you are valuable and can distinguish yourself, you can claim a premium in the marketplace. Of course, nobody is smart to be able to permanently distinguish themselves because for anything that is getting a premium, there are others who will follow suit and compete for attention until that “anything” is commodotized and loses the early premium that… -
The problem is never the problem…
8 Feb 2010 | 12:01 amIn this short (around 2-minutes) video, one of my heroes, Tom Peters explains (with examples) why the problem is never the problem, the response to the problem is. Totally loved the video and is embedded below for you: Why did the 2-minute video touch my heart? The way I look at it, the statement can be extended to many other things – such as an “opportunity.” An opportunity is not an opportunity unless you do something about it. The trick is in “taking action” and doing something about what we are faced with. And, that is in our control. ---Related Articles at… -
A killer app – “Free” + “Social Proof” + Now!
7 Feb 2010 | 12:01 amThe other day, I was at the Campbell post office standing in the line waiting for my turn. It was a long line so (as usual) I was busy browsing a book. The person in front of me brought me out of my dream when he stepped out asking me to hold his place. I nodded and continued reading. I couldn’t help notice what the person did. There was a box to drop off a business card to win a prize at the end of the month. The person dropped off his business card and walked back. I looked at the box again. There were probably 200 other business cards in the box. Not fully believing what I just saw,… -
Grace and Elegance
6 Feb 2010 | 12:01 amPhoto Courtesy: Amitabh Bacchan’s blog Criticism is part of life. If you are doing anything significant, there will always be some criticism from someone Why? Simply because you can’t please everyone. A simple thing to do is to handle criticism with grace. Here is an example of how Amitabh Bacchan (who needs no introduction for anyone who has heard of Bollywood) handled criticism from another superb Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah. Here it is, in his own words (on his blog) [ Note: I made VERY minor edits for the sake of readability. Emphasis is mine ] A question came my way… -
A gentle push…
5 Feb 2010 | 12:01 amWhen you are on the fence, sometimes all it requires is a gentle push and you will move to one side. But someone or something has to give that gentle push. It does not take a lot of effort (remember: it’s gentle) but someone still has to do it. With that in the background, let’s put the “proverbial” fence aside and take a real situation. You are contemplating whether to attend a networking event or not. You want to do it but you also have other competing priorities to take care of. You know that in the long run it will help you but there are some short-term fires to…
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Career Hub
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Jigsaw Puzzles and Job Seekers
8 Feb 2010 | 8:31 amWho invented the jigsaw puzzle? A. Ben Franklin B. George Washington C. Abraham Lincoln D. John Spilsbury E. Thomas Edison F. Christopher Columbus According to this site, an Englishmen by the name of John Spilsbury invented the jigsaw puzzle in... -
Seeking a How-To Book to Get Your Search Started?
5 Feb 2010 | 1:37 pmOne of the biggest challenges of any career transition is getting started--especially when you are confronted with shifting priorities such as family, financial pressure, or simply the overwhelming feeling that your talents could be better used elsewhere. In the words... -
Transform Your Job Search
5 Feb 2010 | 10:50 amThe other day I attended a transformational leadership program called "Lessons From Gettysburg" delivered by The Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg. When I attend seminars, I am always interested in how I can take what I have learned and apply... -
Hot Spots for Finding Jobs
3 Feb 2010 | 6:22 pmThere are over 2,000 Hot Spots nationwide for finding jobs, and you might be surprised how many there are where you live now. Hot Spots are industry-location combinations that are adding new jobs and growing faster than the normal workforce... -
5 Steps To Overcoming Your Fears
2 Feb 2010 | 4:01 pmAre you….. Scared of making a vital call? Worried about sending an email to that contact? Fearful about making a big decision? …..do you consequently feel paralysed and powerless? Ok, try following these steps: 1) Write down EXACTLY what you’re...
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Jobacle
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Parity for Mental Health Insurance Coverage
8 Feb 2010 | 6:45 amNew Rule’s Timing Couldn’t Be BetterOn January 29, 2010, federal regulations were issued regarding parity in mental health and substance abuse insurance coverage. What it means is that employer group health insurance plans (of companies with over 50 employees) will now have to offer the same coverage for mental health and drug abuse treatment as they do for medical illnesses. -
Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz Resigns; Tweets Haiku
4 Feb 2010 | 9:38 amTechcrunch reports that Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz has resigned from his job via Twitter. Today’s my last day at Sun. I’ll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no moreI guess when you're a CEO, you can get away with it. But if you want to exit the right way and quit your job with class, you need The Exit Guide: How to Quit a Job the Right Way. Included are some great resignation letter templates. Schwartz might be out of a job, but we're sure he can spare a few bucks to buy a copy. -
Super (Unemployment) Bowl
4 Feb 2010 | 7:17 amThis weekend there will be about 20 people at Jobacle HQ watching the Super Bowl. We'll all be chowing down on chicken wings and pulled pork sliders, shushing each other as the first commercials start to play.At an average cost of $2.6M for 30 seconds, everyone from Anheuser-Busch to Walt Disney will be jockeying for our attention.We'll all muse over the cost of these ads, a figure, which quite honestly, is incomprehensible to me and my middle class friends.The out-of-work construction worker will laugh; the unemployed teacher might chuckle. And my friend's dad, who's worked… -
Choose Not to Fly Your Freak Flag at Work
3 Feb 2010 | 7:00 amWhen Not Fitting in is a Good ThingIn a recent post, “VIDEO: Pains in the Office,” Andrew gave some terrific examples of stereotypical rude co-workers and how they drive us nuts. I’ve always been thankful that at least they seem to be in the minority. But an article in eWeek.com, “Four in 10 Workers Say They Don’t Fit in with Peers,” tells us that it’s possible most of us are outnumbered by these characters. The article points out how one “bad apple” in a work group can “spoil the “barrel” and have a negative affect… -
Reality Check: Work Fire Drills FAIL
2 Feb 2010 | 7:01 amShouting fire in a crowded theater could land you in jail; yelling 'fire drill' at work is a big, fat, colossal fail. While an exciting and welcome change of pace in fourth grade, workplace fire drills are a time-wasting distraction in the corporate culture. Before my inbox gets jammed from fire survivors, let me preface this post by stating I am not anti-fire drill, nor am I pro-fire. I just think the methods employed by most organizations are laughable.THE TRUTH ABOUT WORK FIRE DRILLS1) Don't give me a mandatory meeting place in the event of a fire. I understand that…
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Slacker Manager
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Is Kansas For Real?
9 Feb 2010 | 6:42 amNow that the pro football season has come to end (shout out to the Saints — Who Dat!), we can concentrate fully on basketball without any needless distractions. There is so much parody in college basketball this season. Every time a new team reaches the number 1 spot in the polls, they get beat. The movement between the top 25 teams has been so fluid that you can’t really figure out who’s got a leg up on who? Kansas protected the number one spot on Monday with a win against Texas. That’s why when Kansas took over at number 1, I thought, “this is only going to last… -
PSA Screening Detection: U.S. versus Europe
9 Feb 2010 | 6:05 amDetection of prostate cancer using PSA blood levels (prostate specific antigen) is significantly lower in the United States than in Europe, say researchers. Prostate cancer screening using the PSA levels is being encouraged to detect early prostate cancer, but who is screened and how often depends on individual physicians or clinics. The U.S. National Institutes of Health site notes that higher risk men are usually recommended to be screened starting at the age of 40 or 45 years. For men with no risk factors for prostate cancer, such as family history, some doctors are not actively… -
Fallout 3: New Vegas Coming Fall 2010
9 Feb 2010 | 5:25 amI haven’t played Fallout 3 in months – maybe even a year. OK. I don’t think a whole year but it has been so long I can’t remember the last time Iplayed the game. Why is this important? Because Fallout 3 was amazing and wonderful and I LOVED it but after a while, I got incredibly bored with it. I also saw the ending of it while watching Tucker play his save and was so damn disappointed in the crap ending that I didn’t see a reason to keep on playing. BUT, now I’ve seen the New Vegas trailer and while I can’t exactly put my finger on why, New Vegas gets… -
“Bioshock 2” Is Now Available!
9 Feb 2010 | 2:48 amThe highly anticipated Bioshock 2 was released today and I can imagine that hundreds of copies are flying off the shelves as I type. The original Bioshock was released back in 2007 and they’ve already got a great-looking follow up to the acclaimed game. The sequel is set about 10 years after the events of the first game and it all unfolds in the underwater city of Rapture. A monster has been kidnapping little girls and you can’t exactly let that continue, can you? In order to help them, though, you’re going to have to survive which might be easier said than done. Here are some… -
Ellen to Make “American Idol” Debut Tonight
9 Feb 2010 | 1:38 amIn a season filled with controversy, Ellen DeGeneres will be making her debut as the new judge on American Idol. After Paula Abdul quit, it was a scramble to find someone to fill her seat and considering the fact that Ellen is such a huge fan of the show, I thought it was a good choice. image: Michael Becker / FOX Of course, there’s been all kinds of drama and there have been reports that Ellen is already clashing with fellow judge, Simon Cowell. With viewership down, I’m sure they are hoping she can bring back the ratings and a feud with Simon would definitely help that. Post from:…
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Secrets of the Job Hunt
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6 Timesaving Social Media Tools for Business
9 Feb 2010 | 9:59 amTime management is something that most of us struggled with long before social media. As we become more involved in the world of social media and the see the importance of building personal business relationships, managing your time both inside the social media space and outside as a business professional and human being becomes ever more important. Once a month I host a free teleseminar where I discuss a topic related to social media. This month, I discussed “How to Manage Your Social Media in 30 Min. a Day.” A very important topic for those of us who have too much to do and not enough… -
What HR managers want
9 Feb 2010 | 6:07 amI just love it when HR people divulge the secrets to getting hired. Check out this interview with Libby Sartain, Chief People @ Yahoo! Most interesting in the post are these two nuggests of advice:Question: What makes a cover email and resume 'pop' for you?Answer: In the cover email, or summary when submitting your applications through an online jobs site like Hot Jobs, we look for your personality to show through. You should be able to come up with a succinct summary of who you are, what you bring to the table, and why we should hire you...but your unique personality should 'pop.'I suggest… -
Do you look for a job like in the 70s?
9 Feb 2010 | 1:04 amwww.laurentbrouat.com Do you still use a Cover letter and a CV (or Resume)? Do you still use the network of your close friends and only the network of your close friends? Guess what, you look for a job like in the 70s! My dad is 60 this year, and just retired from his company after almost 40 years of good work. He started working there in 1971. When he arrived in my city, he only knew my mother and had no contact at all. But at the time, he had a GSCE level which was good. The first job he got was to work for the local newspaper doing some admin stuff. He got this job because my mother’s… -
Who’s Hiring from Forbes Most Trustworthy Companies List – Vol II
9 Feb 2010 | 12:00 amReposted from CareerAlley "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, 1999 Now there is a quote that not only pertains to fantasy, but also makes sense in the real world too, and you know who I'm talking about. But what about in the business world? Can a company actually be trustworthy? I say yes (even if you can't see where it keeps its brain). You've been there, you go to a store to buy a large ticket item and you get the hard sell from the salesman. Is he telling the truth or just… -
What can a jobseeker give?
8 Feb 2010 | 4:45 amI write often about the importance of putting on an attitude of giving (rather than of desperation) for your job search. Well I will make this post short and sweet because I could not say it better than @JasonAlba says in his latest post "QUESTION: If a jobseeker has no money, what can he give?" You must check this out to learn how to help others build their network to their next great job opportunity! What other ways have you given that have accelerated your job search?
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The Change Blog
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You Can’t Force Other People to Change – But You Can Help Them
9 Feb 2010 | 4:30 amPhoto by Amir K. By Ali Hale Do you have a teen who just won’t get off his backside and do anything? Is your brother deeply in debt? Have you got a friend whose romantic life is a series of disasters which she never seems to learn from? Are your parents severely overweight? Is your partner a smoker? The chances are, there’s someone in your life who you believe is in need of change … but they’re not making any progress. If you’ve devoted yourself to change, perhaps making great strides in your personal and professional life, then it can be frustrating to see others – friends… -
Want To Change Your Life? Travel. Or Don’t.
4 Feb 2010 | 6:13 amPhoto by Andy C By Nathalie Lussier We often hear of people traveling across the world and experiencing profound life changing epiphanies. Well I’m here to tell you that’s not how it happens. Sure traveling around the world will change your life, but not exactly in the way you expect it to. At this time last year my boyfriend Robin and I were just two travelers visiting East Asian countries like China, Korea, and Singapore. We considered ourselves to be independent, non-confirmist souls. We had all these notions of inner change taking place. Or at least I did. Nathalie at the… -
How to Build the Confidence Habit
25 Jan 2010 | 5:00 amPhoto by Andy C By Mark Harrison “If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh We are all beset with doubts sometimes. Even the most self-assured and successful people can be unsure of themselves. Some people are clearly more confident than others, though. To what extent this is ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ is unclear, though I suspect that ‘nurture’ has a lot to do with it. I’ve seen my own confidence wax and wane over the years, and external factors have certainly played… -
Reactionary or Revolutionary: What’s Your Attitude to Change – And Is It Holding You Back?
21 Jan 2010 | 4:00 amPhoto by h.koppdelaney By Ali Hale Broadly speaking, there are two political outlooks on change. Reactionaries see change as a bad thing, something to be treated with caution. Revolutionaries celebrate and embrace change. Take, for instance, attitudes towards the rapid changes in society due to technology. A reactionary would voice concerns about children playing video games, about the short attention spans caused by the internet, and about security and privacy risks. A revolutionary would talk about the new possibilities created – new ways of working, new art forms, and new connections… -
Signs of Aging
18 Jan 2010 | 5:35 amPhoto by jonrawlinson By CA Mobley My recent birthday gave me ample opportunity to reflect, as I always do, on my life thus far and what the forthcoming year means to me. As a woman I’ve become very aware of how our society puts an extreme amount of emphasis on aging as a marketing tool for beauty products (most of which are completely unnecessary and useless- but they smell good and look pretty!) I find it fascinating how aggressive the marketing is aimed at being anything other than your age. Specifically if you’re a woman over 40- that is the target demo. Those are the ones to…
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Copyblogger
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Does Writing for People Work for SEO?
9 Feb 2010 | 8:16 amHang around web writing circles for any length of time, and the inevitable “write for search engines or write for people” debate comes up. It’s a bit strange, really. Last time I checked, it’s people who use search engines, not some other life form. So you’re always writing for people. Obviously, the debate stems from the fact that search engines are powered by computer algorithms. But as search engines have gotten smarter, writing that pleases people and satisfies spiders is not that far apart, if at all. Let’s look at four factors that work well for SEO and see how well they… -
The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion
8 Feb 2010 | 7:49 amI’ve found it just doesn’t pay to crow too much about what I’ve accomplished. Sure, I celebrate when things go well. But I’ve found that talking too much about my achievements leads not only to criticism, but to disappointment. There’s always going to be someone who’s done more or worked harder. And until they carve my name into the side of the moon, I see no reason in puffing myself up. The minute you get a big head is the same minute that reality smacks you and you realize that you aren’t as cool as you think you are. So self-adulation is something I try to stay… -
Five Areas to Focus On for Effective SEO Copywriting
5 Feb 2010 | 8:51 amWhen I first started Copyblogger in 2006, I was almost militantly against on-page search optimization. Seems strange, since I’d been a successful student of SEO since 2000. It was because I saw all these people fretting over keywords like it’s 1999, and yet they had no links. Their content was weak. Their sites weren’t trusted. You can’t optimize something that’s dead in the water. So my initial goal was to get people to focus on content that attracted attention and links first. Only then do you have something you can make better (that’s what optimize means, naturally). Fours… -
Landing Page Makeovers 2007-2009: Where Are They Now?
4 Feb 2010 | 6:46 amThis is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. It occurred to me late last year, as I was readying yet another Landing Page Makeover, that the end of one year and the beginning of the next was a good time to do a “Where are they now?” post. So first things first, I went back and contacted all makeover participants from the very beginning of the series. Of the more than 20 contacted, I learned that one is no longer in business, MagicPumpkinArt.com (Makeover #14) and two are in the midst of developing new products or revising… -
Does SEO Copywriting Still Matter?
3 Feb 2010 | 8:28 amIf there’s any one thing that can be said about SEO with certainty, it’s that it manages to cause a lot of confusion. For example, it seems like many people’s idea of SEO was formed 10 years ago, and hasn’t bothered to change with the times. Even an online veteran like Robert Scoble is completely clueless about modern best practices for search engine optimization. So, before we go any further, let me answer the question posed by the headline . . . Yes, SEO copywriting still matters. Here’s why. Search is still the biggest game in town “Pick your survey, search remains one of the…
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Business of Software Blog
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What will happen when a software company downs tools for a week?
4 Feb 2010 | 3:40 amThree months ago, four Red Gaters volunteered to lock themselves into a converted barn on the Suffolk coast for a week, ate pizza, drank beer and coded. When Alex, Dom, Nagashree and Rob stumbled back into the office, they’d conceived, gestated and birthed SQL Search. Last week, we launched the product – a free tool to search SQL Server databases. But this blog post isn’t about that. It’s about an idea that popped into my head after reading Dan Pink’s excellent book DriveOne section talks about Atlassian and their FedEx days: the company takes a day off, splits up into adhoc teams,… -
Ingeniously simple tools ... don't happen by chance
3 Feb 2010 | 1:53 pmHave you ever wondered what pulling a pint of English ale can tell you about software interfaces? Or are you curious about Steve Jobs's magic ability to create news from a vacuum*? These are just two of the topics our user experience folk (they're the people who design Red Gate's software) have covered in our new UX blog. You can read more in pride and preference by Adam Walker and the empty magic of Steve Jobs by Marine Barbaroux.Browse the blog posts, and then put faces to the names. *The iPad is cool, but this is cooler. -
The rise of the expert
3 Feb 2010 | 3:23 amI’m sitting in my doctor’s office. I’ve described my symptoms and he’s asked a few questions. For a few seconds, he seems puzzled. He starts typing at his computer. I shift my chair so I can see what he’s typing into which expert medical database. He’s on Google. This episode from a couple of weeks back illustrates the ever increasing importance of experts. As information swells in quantity but shrinks in quality, people who can sift through the muck to find the gold become more important and more powerful. People who can judge and interpret; who tell us, the public, what is worth… -
How much is that little piccie in the window? Why product doesn't determine price
2 Feb 2010 | 10:26 amIn 1989 this tiny oil painting of the Virgin Mary was valued at some $9000. On November 29th 1991 it was worth $180,000. A day later, on November 30th, it was valued at between $36 million and $54 million. The valuation proved accurate. In 2004, the UK's National Gallery bought it for some $50m. What changed in those 24 hours? Clearly the physical painting didn't change. It had the same brushstrokes and the same paint made from the same chemicals. It was painted with the same degree of technical skill. The subject matter was the same. It was as pleasing to look at after as it was before. It… -
Inbound marketing by @dharmesh and @bhalligan - a book review
8 Nov 2009 | 10:43 pmInbound marketing - get found using Google, social media and blogs is a great book. It's not the book I expected, but it's a great book nonetheless. Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan and their company, Hubspot, are creating the digital wave. They're throwing giant twitter and facebook rocks into the sea of traditional marketing. This book isn't, of course, targeted at the impossibly thin market of people who, like Dharmesh and Brian, are creating this wave. But neither is it targeted at people like myself; those of us who are surfing the wave with differing levels of skill and success. Instead,…
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The Rapid eLearning Blog
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Here’s How to Add Personality to Your E-Learning Courses
9 Feb 2010 | 12:04 amIn a previous post, I shared some free handwritten fonts. Today, we’ll explore how you might use them in your elearning courses. We already looked at how fonts are more than the text you read. As a graphic element, they convey meaning and play a role in the message you communicate. That means you always have to consider what visual cues the text provides in addition to what is being read. A Few Examples Below are images from some web sites that include the use of handwritten fonts. Look them over and consider what value they bring to the screen. How would… -
Why E-Learning is So Effective
2 Feb 2010 | 12:30 amE-learning is hot. And for good reason. If done right, it can produce great results by decreasing costs and improving performance. Also, unlike a one time classroom session, the elearning course is available for others. This includes the static elearning course as well as any ongoing conversations in networked communities. Recently, I had a conversation with someone new to elearning and it struck me that she didn’t fully understand the value of elearning. I think this is common as more people are joining the world of elearning. Understanding elearning’s value… -
How to Navigate Social Media (and Avoid Information Overload)
26 Jan 2010 | 12:27 amThere’s a lot of conversation about social media. And for good reason. The tools let you connect with peers who share common interests. It’s also a great way to build a personal learning network. For example, if you build rapid elearning courses with Articulate products there are all sorts of resources available to you: Articulate’s Facebook page keeps you up-to-date on news and information. Connect with us via Twitter. It’s a more personal connection to the network and you can stay on top of the cool tutorials we create with Screenr. Articulate… -
Here’s a Quick Way to Create Your Next E-Learning Template in PowerPoint
19 Jan 2010 | 12:20 amIn a previous post, I showed you how to design your own PowerPoint templates. In other posts, I’ve talked about how to use PowerPoint’s drawing features to build the envelope icon and television monitor. These are all intended to help you become more proficient with PowerPoint and your graphic design skills. In today’s post, we’ll pull some of these ideas together to create a folder graphic that you can use in your elearning courses. I have a published example below, as well as a step-by-step tutorial. You can also download the PowerPoint file so that you can… -
How Fonts Take a Starring Role in Your E-Learning Courses
12 Jan 2010 | 12:11 amThe video below shows how graphic designer, Brian Hoff, selected the right font for one of his projects. There are many points in the video where he probably could have stopped, but didn’t. No one would have known the difference. But something kept him going until he found just the right look. Click here to view video. What kept him going is knowing that the typography does more than share the information to be read. It also communicates ideas or concepts visually because the font is more than text. It’s a graphic element that contributes to what you want…
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Great Leadership
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Leadership Lessons from Undercover Boss: Episode 1
8 Feb 2010 | 5:28 pmThe first episode of CBS’s new reality show “Undercover Boss” aired Sunday night right after the Superbowl. For those of you that may not have heard, each week the show will feature a CEO that goes “undercover” to find out what everyday life is really like within their own companies. What a perfect opportunity for Great Leadership lessons and advice!Each week I’ll provide a link to the synopsis and my own leadership lessons learned that I believe would benefit any leader or aspiring leader (so you won’t have to have watched the show).The first episode didn’t disappoint. It… -
February Leadership Development Carnival – Carnevale di Venezia Edition
7 Feb 2010 | 7:19 pmLooking for this month's Leadership Development Carnival? Nope, it’s not here. It’s hosted by Mark Bennett, Meg Bear, Amy Wilson, Vivian Wong, and the rest of my friends over at the Talented Apps blog. Take a look! There are 35 posts from my favorite leadership bloggers!Mark points out that this month’s edition is during Carnevale in Venice. That’s kind of fitting, given I’ll be in Venice next month. (-:Next’s month’s edition will back here on March 7th.Now I gotta go watch Undercover Boss. -
Career Advice Part 3: Lateral Moves
6 Feb 2010 | 9:17 amA lot of career advice these days deals with how to get a job and how to get ahead (promoted). Makes sense, given the current economic conditions.However, at some point in your career, you will most likely be faced with another kind of career decision – whether to make a lateral move into a role that’s unfamiliar to you.Before I get into the ins and outs of lateral moves, I need to give you some context as to where my advice is coming from.My jobs have always been all about talent management. I have to make sure my company has strong leadership capability and a of pipeline emerging… -
Career Advice Part 2: Never Stop Learning
31 Jan 2010 | 5:26 amThis is the second part of a 5 part career advice series. There’s three parts to every career path: the past, present, and the future. Kind of like Dickens’s Christmas Carol. A lot of us tend to think of these elements in terms of the results we’ve achieved (as documented on our resume), the work we’re doing, and what we want to do when we grow up (our career plans and goals). There’s another way to think about your career path – think of your career as a learning journey. The Past:Most of know it’s a smart habit to update our resumes every year. It’s like paying your taxes -… -
Career Advice Part 1: Don’t Settle
27 Jan 2010 | 4:47 pmI’m going to veer a little bit from the primary mission of this blog (leadership development) and offer a 5 part series of career advice posts.I do this with some hesitation. There are hundreds of career advice blogs out there already. For a good sample, start with Alltop’s collection of career blogs. I’d also recommend signing up for the new SmartBrief on Your Career free daily newsletter.The point is, I can’t even begin to compete with some of my favorites like Anita Bruzzese, so I won’t even try. I humbly bow to their expertise.However, I have picked up a few strategies that…
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The Tom Peters Weblog
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Link Roundup #12
9 Feb 2010 | 8:20 amKeller Graduate School of Management has an online roundtable discussion series on how "businesses of any size can encourage an environment of corporate entrepreneurship." The Job Search Difficulty Index "measures the difficulty of finding a job" either by state or major U.S. city. For January, as I'm sure you can guess, Michigan was the the most difficult state in which to find a job. With the current state of the job market, many people are turning to self-employment. Reader Stephen Garner pointed us to How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo from the Wall Street Journal. If you're as… -
Leadership: The Problem Isn't the Problem
3 Feb 2010 | 2:16 pmTom argues that the reaction to the problem often becomes more of a problem than the original misstep would have been if dealt with honestly. As he's been known to say: "Foul up. Fess up. Fast. Fastidiously." You can watch the 2:10 minute video on YouTube and, if you like, download a PDF of its transcript. -
Scary!
1 Feb 2010 | 4:59 amScariest start of an article award 2010, from yesterday's New York Times: "China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may… -
The Fortune Guy Is the One With the Problem
28 Jan 2010 | 12:22 pmThere's a Fortune article on a Goldman guy who quit. ("The Man Who Walked Away from Goldman Sachs," William Cohan, 0208.10.) The Goldman guy was worried about Goldman doing a header like Lehman. The Fortune guy wrote: ""If Goldman's stock went to zero as Lehman Brothers' had ... then Winkelried's decades of hard work would be vaporized in the blip of a Bloomberg screen." What a horror. Namely, the fact that the Fortune guy could produce that sentence, presumably with no sense of irony. Suppose my net worth was 100.000% wiped out this morning. I would be unhappy. Very unhappy. But ... But… -
What is Excellence?
26 Jan 2010 | 3:59 am[Our guest blogger is Seth Godin, who needs no further introduction here. We'd like to thank him very much for this, his first post at tompeters.com.] Twenty-five years ago, my life (and yours, too, probably) was changed by Tom and Bob's book, In Search of Excellence. After that, on a regular basis, Tom has provided us with shots of brilliance and unsettling reminders that we've got a long way to go to reach our potential as organizations and individuals. Along the way, there's a question that's been nibbled at but never really answered. I mean, I already know many of the 687 ways to create…
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Remarkablogger
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How to Increase Blog Traffic by Over 100% In 3 Days
9 Feb 2010 | 4:16 amThis guest post is by Dan H., the founder and editor at Maciverse.com. Maciverse is a Mac Help website with tips, tutorials, and news for Mac users both new and old. Follow Dan on Twitter: @Maciverse. Maciverse.com is a website that covers everything about Apple’s Mac computers. It has been almost 2 years since we started the website and we are now really hitting our stride. We currently average 70,000+ monthly unique visitors, but that wasn’t always the case. In fact, most of our success has come during the last year. Twelve months ago we average 12,000 monthly visitors; we’ve… -
Social Media Marketing May be about Driving Behavior, not Conversation
7 Feb 2010 | 9:48 amOn February 1st, I attended the Burlington Social Media Breakfast in Vermont, where Adrian Ho of Zeus Jones gave a really smart presentation on social media marketing. The video is below. If you can’t see it in your email or reader, come on over to the blog to watch it. I think you’ll find watching this well worth your time. I’d take notes if I were you. UPDATE: Looks like the embed didn’t work for the video. Sorry about that. You can watch it at Digalicious, the site of Rich Nadworny (one of the BTVSMB organizers). Click here to watch the video. What did you take away… -
Open Discussion: What are You Measuring?
4 Feb 2010 | 9:15 amThey say that what gets measured, gets improved. So what are you measuring? Because if you’re not measuring, you’re not paying attention to the forces that affect your traffic, influence, and income. And how can you expect to succeed in marketing your business if you’re not doing that? Here’s where you come in: what are you measuring, how are you measuring it, and what do you do with the information? Tell us in the comments! Bonus question: what do you think you should be measuring? And if you’re not, why not? Email this to a friend? Tweet This! Share this on… -
Social Media Marketing Done Right
3 Feb 2010 | 1:58 pmI recently had an interesting social media encounter with Eric Romer of HeadBlade, whose history is a great modern social media and internet marketing success story. To see what happened, watch the video below. If you don’t see it in your email or reader, you can find it by visiting the blog. I think Eric has set a great example for us to follow. What do you think? How are you using social media along with blogging to market your business? Email this to a friend? Tweet This! Share this on Facebook Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Share this on Mixx Post this to… -
7 Things (and 3 Questions) Professional Coaches Must Know Before Starting to Blog
2 Feb 2010 | 5:44 amThis is a guest post by Christine Livingston. So, you’re a coach and you’ve started to hear about blogging and social media. You see other coaches – me, for example – embracing this weird new world, and you wonder whether it’s really something you need to be getting into or not. Here’s a run-down on how social media can help you. And some health warnings to consider before jumping in. Advantages Keeps you ahead of moving trends Social media is not the future, it’s the present. In the business world Wordpress, an internationally used blogging platform;…
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Andy Sernovitz's Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That!
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Free Kills
9 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amEveryone is all excited about the idea of free. Free software, free content, and Chris Anderson’s book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. But it’s not always good. When something is given away free, it kills the market for similar products. iTunes is a very adequate music manager. But it doesn’t work well for large collections, multiple users, or home networks. By giving it away to almost everyone, there is no more market for music manager software. No one is ever going to pay for it again, so no software developers have a reason to build something better. RSS feeds… -
Job opportunity: We’re looking for a brilliant director of sales
8 Feb 2010 | 1:00 pmWe’re quickly growing here at GasPedal and have an immediate opening for a director of sales for our Social Media Business Council community. A few must-have qualities: Proven BtoB sales experience with VP- and C-level execs at large corporations Strong knowledge of social media and word of mouth marketing Consultative and approachable — our product is a long-term community membership; this is a relationship-building position Honest, trustworthy, and ethical Sales are brisk and the product is popular. Current members include Procter & Gamble, Dell, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, Home… -
7 smart rules of social media manners
8 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amSome great business blogging advice (and life advice) from Christopher Burgess of Cisco: You Are Responsible: There are no do-overs. There is an adage, “Once posted, forever toasted,” which serves to highlight the reality that your information, data and content will be available to one and all, seemingly forever, and it is guaranteed to revisit you sometime in the future. Abide by the Rules: Individuals are accountable for their actions. This is a basic tenet of public discourse and elucidation. Don’t share your company’s confidential data. Don’t speak about… -
Superbowl
7 Feb 2010 | 5:14 pmZe Frank speaks for me: Best line: “Everyone knows it takes millions of dollars to create compelling content.” Ze’s Website Share: -
How to scare away new customers
7 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amWe ordered a sample pack of a new kind of computer paper. We even paid $10 for the samples. They charged us $10 shipping. We ordered $150 worth of parts from a catalog on our first order. We forgot a few things, so we bought $20 more. There was a $4 ’small order fee’. There are certain moments when you know you just found a new customer: First phone call, first visit, asking for samples, new customer buys twice in a week. Set up a process to identify these actions. Give them extra samples. Send them links to how-to videos. Include a coupon for a free upgrade on the second order.
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The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
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Random Episode 8 – 2010 Resolutions with Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss
17 Jan 2010 | 10:52 amThis new, long overdue Random episode covers our personal resolutions–personal, business, physical, and otherwise–as well as favorite recent gifts (both given and received). The video is recorded on two cameras, including Glenn’s new experimental HD delight. Topics include: - Chocolate - Powerlifting - Filtering false friends - Funny hats - The art of the decline … and naked ladies. Best to give the video 10-20 minutes to buffer before watching. It’s a big ‘un. Please let us know in the comments what you’d like our next show topic to be! If you missed… -
The First Time Online – Enjoy While You Can
8 Jan 2010 | 2:00 amMost of you have never seen this. I really hope you enjoy it. To download, just sign into Vimeo and you’re set. If you Final Cut it up, please set to a Crystal Method or Sevendust soundtrack :) In other breaking news: I need only 120 more Amazon reviews to beat The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a dream I’ve had since 2007! Not because I dislike him, but precisely the opposite — he’s one of my writing role models and I long viewed his book as untouchable. If you’ve read the 4HWW but haven’t left a short review on Amazon, please take 30 seconds and help… -
Thank You, Facebook Bankruptcy, and Late Christmas Presents
6 Jan 2010 | 3:08 am(Photo: source) Thank you… Thank you… Thank you! The last two blog posts have moved me more than any others, and the new expanded 4-Hour Workweek has hit #4 on The New York Times bestseller list and #3 on the USA Today Money list! In a future post, I will explain exactly what I did in PR and marketing (including recordings and screenshots) to help it happen, but the reality is: you made it happen. You all rock. For buying the book? No. For making this community what it is. For helping one another and sharing your stories and lessons learned. For teaching me more than I can ever… -
Cold Remedy: 18 Real-World Lifestyle Design Case Studies (Now It’s Your Turn)
31 Dec 2009 | 2:18 amIf not in 2010, then when? (Photo: jphilipson) The video case studies that I asked for in the last post really caught me unprepared. I…am…so happy that it’s hard to put it into words. From Denmark to India, from college students to retirees, from yoga instructors to engineers, the stories poured in. Narrowing them down to finalists, even with several people, was excruciating, but below you will find 15 of our favorites. Many more are worth watching (I watched them all) and can be found here, or by searching “4hww success” on YouTube. There are also 150 comments… -
Cold Remedy: Free Flights Anywhere in the World
22 Dec 2009 | 8:38 amWhere would you go if you had a free ticket anywhere? The island of Bohol in the Philippines? (source: WisDoc) Not long ago, I received the following comment — edited for length — from Ryan N.: I hate you Tim. I had a secure future ahead of me, and I left my job, my reasonably well paying professional career all because of your book. Best thing I’ve ever done!! I was wondering if you might be able to put up a blog post where people could post their ideas or muses as case studies. I’m sure there are a lot of people like me who would like to share their stories and listen to…
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Project Shrink
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Trusting People You Don’t Know
8 Feb 2010 | 1:52 amThis a very early draft of a chapter from “Tags: Living In A Virtual World“. I use this blog as a notebook for drafts, so you can provide me with feedback in an early stage. Comments are, as always, appreciated. I have more faith in a friendly clean-cut doctor in a white coat, than one in a jeans with anti-social behavior. Although. For anyone remembering Dougie Howser, MD, the 1990 television series that starred a teen aged child as clean-cut white coat doctor, I would not want him to be my physician. I would prefer House, the grumpy but brilliant doctor, who “doesn’t… -
Tags: Sociology In A Virtual World
4 Feb 2010 | 2:01 pmThis a very early draft of the introduction to Tags: Living In A Virtual World. I use this blog as a notebook for drafts, so you can provide me with feedback in an early stage. Comments are, as always, appreciated. If you are a Project Manager that operates for a short period of time in a foreign organization, with a team you don’t know, in a domain you would not know how to spell, I would say you have some challenges. Think about this Project Manager as a person in a huge network of interacting people. The PM can interact only with a few of them (his team, the stakeholders). The… -
About My Big Important Words.
3 Feb 2010 | 6:10 amI started this year explaining why I like the word “awesome”. “I like to use the word “awesome” instead of “felicitous” as I like to appeal more to people who like passionate words over expensive sounding ones.” Couple of days later, I tell you “Although writing in a style that sounds authoritative (“You must do this!”) attracts a larger audience, providing advice that respects the comfort zone of the other is more effective in real life.” So. True. And than. In my previous posting I go all “Reputation Space / Project Space” on you. -
This Is Not A Story About Social Media.
30 Jan 2010 | 8:08 amThis is not a story about social media. This is a story about verification. When I tell you that social media has a purpose for Project Managers, you basically have to trust me on this. I try to make a compelling case. I provide you argumentation that makes the case plausible. Or fail at it, for that matter. I provide you with my profile. I make video to make a deeper “connect”. I use some personal branding. I use my associations with professional organizations. I use the fact that I am a practitioner. I use the fact that I have a long history of writing on the web. I use the fact… -
Using Information From The Reputation Space In The Project Space
29 Jan 2010 | 1:28 amWe all have Googled someone. Put his name into the Google search box and hit enter. Just before a meeting. After we have received a mail. See what information we can find about this person. We can use this information to build up a mental image of this person. Build up context. Guess his frame of reference. Determine what this person is about. When we meet this person in a face to face conversation, we use the information we found in his digital footprint. If we like it or not, we interpret messages in the context we have build up. In here lies our challenge. We have to make use of the…
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Pawel Brodzinski
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Who Cares If You Are Agile?
8 Feb 2010 | 12:05 pmLet’s play a small role-playing game. You are the vendor and I am the client. I exactly know what I want to buy. Sort of actually. OK, we may have to face some course changes as we hit the road. Anyway, I know what I want, okay? At the moment I’m going to decide how your offer is best of breed because it surely is. So you tell me how great all the projects I can find in your portfolio were. You boast how enthusiastic reactions of your other customers were. And we both know that’s complete bullshit. Oh, maybe it isn’t but you wouldn’t tell me if things looked different anyway. You… -
Project Management Failure Stories: I Want Them All
3 Feb 2010 | 10:17 amOnce upon a time there was a project. It was rather small and, to some point, not very important. Bob the Young Manager has chosen one of the specialists to run this project. You know, all this boring stuff like reading specs, splitting the work to small chunks, telling how much resources he needs and organizing the work. Mike who was asked to do the job agreed willingly. At least something appropriate for his ambitions. For more than two months no one asked Mike how things going and by this time Mike was all stressed since he was more than sure he’s not going to meet the deadline. Finally… -
Project Management Failure Stories
3 Feb 2010 | 10:16 amWe oh so often write about ideal world. How things should look like. How projects should be managed. How teams should be led. And then we come back to our desk and things around still suck, projects fail and teams have clueless managers instead of leaders. How come? When I hear all these stories about crappy project management I can even justify why they’re failing. The thing which I don’t understand is why no one even tries to change their doomed course? This series is done under the patronage of my wife who strongly embraced the “Failure Stories” name as well as gave me a lot of… -
The Kanban Story: Kanban Board Revisited
1 Feb 2010 | 10:39 amKanban doesn’t prescribe much – if you follow The Kanban Story you already know that. Kanban Board which is a key tool in Kanban isn’t pre-designed or something. You need to tailor your own. That’s how we did with our Kanban Board. We decided to start with something simple and then adjust things as we go. We redesigned Kanban Board because it is meant to be changed. But even then it wasn’t the final shape. When we left the board last time it looked like that. What was the problem? On a general level we switched to more frequent deployments. At the beginning we didn’t have any… -
Fighting with Status Quo
29 Jan 2010 | 9:16 amLast time I wrote about status quo and how it becomes protected value within companies. I could tell you countless stories of people being (mentally) hurt by status quo. I could tell barely a few of these when status quo was defeated. How to fight with status quo then? A short answer is: change rules of the game. Until new status quo emerges everything will be different. To elaborate a bit more, status quo is painful in terms of lost opportunities. Every time some talented and eager engineer hits the glass ceiling or a poor candidate is promoted over a good one or suboptimal organization is…
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PM Hut
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Managing Project Quality
9 Feb 2010 | 12:16 pmManaging Project Quality (#31 in the Hut Introduction to Project Management) By JISC infoNet We have previously mentioned Time, Cost and Quality as key factors in project management. Assessing performance in terms of time and cost is relatively easy but quality is harder to define and measure. A high quality project may be one whose outputs: Meet the [...] -
Fr[agile]
8 Feb 2010 | 9:55 pmFr[agile] By Demian Entrekin Agile has certainly made the rounds as the latest and greatest software development methodology. Scrum has followed right along as a manifestation of this process. They even have, as any good movement should, their own manifesto. It is called, of all things, the Agile Manifesto. Depending on how you look at the world, agile [...] -
How to Compress Project Schedules
8 Feb 2010 | 2:50 pmHow to Compress Project Schedules By Michael D. Taylor There are times when the project schedule duration must be shortened (compressed) either to meet market opportunity dates, to meet the desires of key stakeholders, or when the project completion date slips. In these cases the project manager must find ways to reduce the amount of time it [...] -
Critical Chain Project Management: History and Value
8 Feb 2010 | 7:27 amCritical Chain Project Management: History and Value By William R. Duncan Are there some good ideas being put forth by the advocates of CCPM? Yes. Are they new and innovative ideas? Not as far as I can tell. CCPM has its antecedents in something called the Theory of Constraints (TOC). TOC borrows heavily from systems dynamics (developed by [...] -
A Computational Formulation of WBS in Construction Project Management
7 Feb 2010 | 10:09 amA Computational Formulation of WBS in Construction Project Management By Mohamed Shameer It has been long acknowledged that the distinctive difficulty in Project management is transient, opening challenges such as follows: Definition of a project and its objectives are one-time. Hence, they tend to be incomplete (causes scope-creep), optimistic (causes cost over-run), non-comprehensive (causes rework) and ineffectively [...]
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Better Projects
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Estimating credibly
8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 amAn estimate can be generated in number of ways.One way is for all the work to be planned up front in sufficient detail to be able to know that you can assemble the target 'end-product.' Another way is for you to use analogy, such as using your experience to estimate the size of the work package. Simply put this is top down and bottom up estimating.There are many techniques that you can add into these approaches including function point analysis, cocomo, monte carlo estimates, team velocity and so on. These techniques are beyond the scope of this post. What I want to focus on is the space… -
Time to Retire "Scope Creep"?
7 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pmI recently saw an email from a project sponsor that simply replied "SCOPE CREEP!" in response to the BA's concerns about whether the report being made as part of the project was going to adequately cover the business needs of the client. The BA had suggested a few additional requirements, like formatting and additional fields to include in the report. This was after the charter was written, but before the user requirements had been captured. I was flummoxed by the response.How exactly is this scope creep? It seemed to me the scope of the project was "create a report for the client" along with… -
Filtering your work life
5 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pmThe video below has a running time of 26 minutes and is incredibly fascinating. I can normally watch about 2-3 minutes of a video before boredom sets in, yet this one hooked me and held me all the way through. One of my biggest annoyances is touched on in this video, and that is the subject of 'information overload'. I'll let the speaker explain why he believes it is a bogus term, but I have echoed his feelings for many years. The problem is not how much information exists, but in the ways we deal with the information presented to us. As a demonstration of this, I'll use my methods for… -
How do you manage large projects with Agile?
4 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pmAs a business analyst, I spend a lot of time focusing on gathering good requirements. Once I have a high level set of requirements, I work to refine the requirements to the point where the developers will have enough information for design and implementation of the application. Everyone has a method for achieving this requirements definition process but I would hope at the end they have a fairly robust set of requirements from which to work.This is where I find myself at a loss when working in an Agile environment. I know that only the user stories that are being worked in… -
Webinar: The Business Driven Software Development
2 Feb 2010 | 9:06 pmNet Objectives conducts a series of webinars on Business Driven Software Development: This series provides an introduction on how to achieve Business Agility. Business Agility enables an organization to respond quickly to external forces (such as new market opportunities and competitive forces) as well as to respond quickly to new insights attained internally. While many organizations have achieved the local optimizations of more effective teams, few have achieved agility at the organizational level. Even when team agility has been achieved, if improvements to how the business is selecting…
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Agile Software Development
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5 Reasons Why Agile Development Must Be Driven from the Top
8 Feb 2010 | 8:00 amAgile development is often initiated by the development team itself. Whilst they may find some good advantages, the most profound benefits of agile software development will not be realised unless it is driven from the top.Here's why:1. Multi-disciplined teamsOne of the key concepts of agile development is the idea of multi-disciplined teams - "one team". An agile development team needs all the skills necessary to complete its task from cradle to grave. From initial request to delivery to market, the team should be able to deliver without reference to another team.Having multi-disciplined… -
Special Offer! Get My Agile eBook And Presentations For Just $10 For 1 Month Only
2 Feb 2010 | 1:31 amHi everyone! I've been really pleased with how well my eBook has beeen selling. I normally sell it for $25, but I've decided to do a special offer for 1 month only. It's a kind of belated new-year sale I suppose you could say!Throughout February, you can now get my 55-page eBook - Agile Software Development Made Easy! - for just $10.I've updated all my posts in the series '10 Key Principles of Agile Software Development' and 'How To Implement Scrum in 10 Easy Steps'. I've brought the text up-to-date with my current thinking, and in a few cases I've expanded on the points on my blog. I've also… -
Pair Programming - An Extremely Agile Practice
31 Jan 2010 | 4:17 amPair Programming. It's probably one of the most extreme practices of eXtreme Programming (XP). It's an area of agile software development that polarises opinion.The concept is simple enough. Two developers work side by side on the same piece of work, sharing a keyboard and screen and working together to produce the code.The main advantage of pair programming is usually cited as improving quality, which also improves productivity further down the line.Another advantage is spreading knowledge, as at least two people will know each area of the system. And it can also help with skills development… -
Agile Visitors in 2009
30 Jan 2010 | 1:44 amHi everyone! This blog just seems to keep on growing! It's a bit belated, but I just had a look back at last year's stats...2009 brought over 750,000 page views from 200,000 people! That's astonishing to me - it's so good to think that this blog might have helped so many people.Thank you all for visiting!Kelly.Photo by Sreejith K -
'All About Agile' is no more!
26 Jan 2010 | 4:34 amBack in September, I renamed this blog from 'All About Agile' to Agile Software Development Made Easy!If you are one of the many people kind enough to link to my blog on your home page, but you're still listing me under the old name, please would you update the link text to Agile Software Development Made Easy!That would help me with Google and obviously it's better to use the new name. Much appreciated!Kelly.
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Joel on Software
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Why testers?
26 Jan 2010 | 1:04 pmMy sister got her kids a little puppy, and they’ve been trying to train it. To live with a dog in the house, you need to teach it not to jump on people, not to poop in the house, to sit on command, and to never, ever, ever chew on the iPad. Never. Good girl. With dogs the main trick to training is that feedback has to be immediate. If you come home to discover that, hours before, the dog tipped over the garbage can in the kitchen, it’s too late for training. You can yell at her but she just won’t get what you’re going on about. Dogs are just not that smart. For programmers, getting… -
Rocket Surgery Made Easy
25 Jan 2010 | 1:21 pmSteve Krug has written a follow up to his usability classic Don’t Make Me ThinkThe sequel, Rocket Surgery Made Easyis a terrific, short, concise, fun guide to running simple “hallway” usability tests to improve the usability of your software and websites. Highly recommended. Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people. -
A little less conversation
22 Jan 2010 | 12:33 pm“As companies expand, the people within them start to specialize. At such a point, some managers will conclude that they have a ‘keep everyone on the same page’ problem. But often what they actually have is a ‘stop people from meddling when there are already enough smart people working on something’ problem.” From my latest Inc. column: A Little Less Conversation Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people. -
Secret language
30 Dec 2009 | 7:01 amMicrosoft Careers: “If you’re looking for a new role where you’ll focus on one of the biggest issues that is top of mind for KT and Steve B in ‘Compete’, build a complete left to right understanding of the subsidiary, have a large amount of executive exposure, build and manage the activities of a v-team of 13 district Linux& Open Office Compete Leads, and develop a broad set of marketing skills and report to a management team committed to development and recognized for high WHI this is the position for you!” This is ironic, to use the Alanis Morissette meaning of the word… -
Let’s stop talking about “backups”
14 Dec 2009 | 7:30 amIs your desktop backed up? Did you backup that server? Are your backups on a different machine? Do you have offsite backups? All good questions, all best practices. But let’s stop talking about “backups.” Doing a backup is too low a bar. Any experienced system administrator will tell you that they have a great backup plan, the trouble comes when you have to restore. And that’s when you discover that: The backed-up files were encrypted with a cryptographically-secure key, the only copy of which was on the machine that was lost The server had enormous amounts of configuration…
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Rands In Repose
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A Story Culture
7 Feb 2010 | 6:57 pmThe Editor and I don't argue, we discuss. We're arguing... discussing over a glass of red wine my concern over our collective attention spans. Not just she and I, but everyone. The whole damned planet. I say, "Information just keeps getting smaller. We're sharing our bright ideas in 140 characters now and no one is taking the time to construct a strategic thought. All these micro-ideas are free and everyone is taking them for granted. We're just tactically stumbling through a day full of intellectual sound bites stuffed with shortened URLs. There's no deep now. Just shallow passing seconds."… -
Wanted
3 Jan 2010 | 8:55 pmJesse walked. Monday is the day we set aside for new hires. All the new hires spend the morning learning about the company, figuring out how to create accounts, and becoming indoctrinated in company culture. When lunch time arrives, managers pick up their new employees and take them to lunch. Their morning starts at 9am, and at 9:15 I got a call from HR: "Jesse's not here". Bad traffic, miscommunication, there were a dozen good reasons he wasn't there, but I instantly felt a rock in my stomach: "Jesse walked". A quick call to my recruiter and the mystery began to unfold, "Oh, yeah, he called… -
A Creative Soundtrack
24 Dec 2009 | 10:09 amThe first story I wrote for myself was a piece of fiction about God being sent to high school. I was, not surprisingly, in high school at the time. What was surprising was the vein of writing I found in myself. I sat down at the computer and the story just showed up -- seven pages of it. As the creative burst subsided, I stared at those seven pages in the word processor -- Wordstar -- and I began to fret about line spacing, page numbers, and other formatting decisions. I was silently asking myself, "How am I going to make this palatable to the editor? To the publisher?" My first story ever. -
Gaming the System
13 Dec 2009 | 12:24 pmOn my list of creative management solutions to dire situations, I offer the rolling whiteboard. The rolling whiteboard was a curiosity at the start-up. Not a full size whiteboard, but a door-sized whiteboard on wheels, suitable for rolling into conference rooms and cubicles alike. I never knew who owned it; I just grabbed it in a moment of desperation. It was end game. The time in the project where you pay for every single shortcut you've taken, for every specification you didn't write, and for all the warnings from engineers that you've ignored. All the data is grim. Bug arrival rates are… -
Up to Nothing
28 Nov 2009 | 8:32 pmIn Silicon Valley, you burn a lot of calories. It's not just the daily burn of your gig, it's everything else involved in staying afloat in a valley which is constantly reinventing itself. You sign up for every new service and spend the prerequisite 3.7 minutes to determine "Does this matter?" You surf the web, you tweet, you update your Facebook, all of which brings a constant flood of new data that needs to be sifted, sorted, and assessed. You have compatriots in this caloric consumption. They randomly walk into your office or your life and with them they bring additional reasons to burn…
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The Daily WTF
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Tales from the Interview: The Missing Interview, Infantile Expectancies, & More
9 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amThe Missing Interview (from Charles Ross) I went for an interview to work as a junior IT support Engineer at a certain Royal bank here in Scotland. It was a late interview, around 4:45 in the afternoon, and I turned up at 4:30, sharply dressed, and with all the documents I'd been requested to bring. Since this was a bank and security was a must, I had a full five year history sitting in front of me. I sat down and was quickly ushered into an interview room. I sat there for 20 minutes waiting, occasionally sticking my nose out the room to see if anyone was coming. After another ive or so… -
CodeSOD: Phishing for a Refund
8 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amAs I'm sure is the case with many of you, I sure do love me some tax refund. Once my W2's and other year-end tax forms documents come in the mail, I get my e-File in and wait for my refund to be direct deposited. Now, since the whole refund process involves computers and the internet, of course, it's a prime target for spammers and phishers who want nothing more than to ignite a little FUD and get some of your hard earned cash. The below snippet comes courtesy of Andy F. who writes, "Idiotic spammers and phishers probably provide your site with a glut of terrible code, but I got a… -
Sponsor Appreciation, Banzai Bouncer, Untraditional Data Rack, & More
5 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amPlease show your support for The Daily WTF by checking out the companies that have been kind enough to sponsor us. And, in doing so, I’m sure you’ll find some pretty cool products and services built by like-minded developers and IT professionals. The Daily WTF Sponsors Microsoft WebsiteSpark - a great program for web shops and freelance web developers and designers where you get some great software (Visual Studio Pro, SQL Server, Server 2008, etc), at no upfront cost for three years; it also provides support and resources to help grow business Peer 1 -… -
Emergency Faxes
4 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amAs far as technologies go, faxing is ancient. It predates the telephone by over a decade and, despite vast advances in scanning and email technology, the fax still remains a standard form of communication. When a transmission goes out, the occasional telecommunication ‘hiccup’ or line noise can corrupt the fax. Most modern fax machines have some rudimentary error handling that will alerts the user that the fax should be resent. This method of managing failures has been working so well that no one really saw fit to change it. That is, until a business analyst at Torre L’s… -
CodeSOD: Almost Counting Past 100
3 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am"At the contract shop where I work," writes John S., "I have been assigned to a new web-enabled mapping program to help take a look at some of the issues they've been having." "When an item is added to a map, it is given a label, such as Item #1, Item #2, etc., with the number on the label incrementing for each new item. We had been having a problem where map labels were not being assigned uniquely when there were more than 100 items per map. It was always starting at Item #100 when reloading the map from the database. This was causing issues since it was the map…
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Coding Horror
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Cultivate Teams, Not Ideas
25 Jan 2010 | 8:00 pmHow much is a good idea worth? According to Derek Sivers, not much: It's so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas. (People who want me to sign an NDA to tell me the simplest idea.) To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions. To make a business, you need to multiply the two. The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000. That's why I don't want to hear people's ideas. I'm not interested until I see their execution. I was reminded of Mr. -
The Great Newline Schism
18 Jan 2010 | 5:00 amHave you ever opened a simple little ASCII text file to see it inexplicably displayed as onegiantunbrokenline? Opening the file in a different, smarter text editor results in the file displayed properly in multiple paragraphs. The answer to this puzzle lies in our old friend, invisible characters that we can't see but that are totally not out to get us. Well, except when they are. The invisible problem characters in this case are newlines. Did you ever wonder what was at the end of your lines? As a programmer, I knew there were end of line characters, but I honestly never thought much about… -
A Democracy of Netbooks
8 Jan 2010 | 5:00 amI'm a big fan of Joey DeVilla's excellent blog, Global Nerdy, but I take exception to his post Fast Food, Apple Pies, and Why Netbooks Suck: he end result, to my mind, is a device that occupies an uncomfortable, middle ground between laptops and smartphones that tries to please everyone and pleases no one. Consider the factors: Size: A bit too large to go into your pocket; a bit too small for regular day-to-day work. Power: Slightly more capable than a smartphone; slightly less capable than a laptop. Price: Slightly higher than a higher-end smartphone but lacking a phone's capability and… -
Responsible Open Source Code Parenting
29 Dec 2009 | 5:08 amI'm a big fan of John Gruber's Markdown. When it comes to humane markup languages for the web, I don't think anyone's quite nailed it like Mr. Gruber. His philosophy was clear from the outset: Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible. Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While Markdown’s syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML filters — including Setext, atx, Textile,… -
Building a PC, Part VI: Rebuilding
17 Dec 2009 | 6:30 pmI can't believe it's been almost two and a half years since I built my last PC. I originally documented that process in a series of posts: Building a PC, Part I: Minimal boot Building a PC, Part II: Burn in Building a PC, Part III: Overclocking Building a PC, Part IV: Now It's Your Turn Building a PC, Part V: Upgrading Now, lest you think I am some kind of freakish, cave-dwelling luddite, what with my ancient two and a half year old PC, I have upgraded the CPU, upgraded the hard drive, and upgraded the video card since then. I also went from 4 GB of RAM to 8 GB of RAM, but I didn't happen to…
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Martin Fowler's Bliki
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Texas Speaking Events Rescheduled
The family medical issue has been resolved happily, so I’m free to go back on the road. We’ve thus rescheduled the events I was supposed to do last month in Texas. On February 23rd I’ll be speaking at DFW Scrum in Dallas. On February 25th ThoughtWorks is organizing a technology forum in Austin. As is usual for me, I haven’t planned exactly what I’ll talk about yet, but it’ll revolve around my usual topics of software design and agile methods. -
ConversationalStories
Here's a common misconception about agile methods. It centers on the way user stories are created and flow through the development activity. The misconception is that the product owner (or business analysts) creates user stories and then put them in front of developers to implement. The notion is that this is a flow from product owner to development, with the product owner responsible for determining what needs to be done and the developers how to do it.A justification for this approach is that this separates the responsibilities along the lines of competence. The product owner knows the… -
DslBookRoadmap
Time for another update on my DSL book's progress, since I've not been writing anything else recently.I had my first round of technical review late in 2009 and have been incorporating comments into the current drafts. Progress on this has gone well, in large part because travel is light this time of the year. I'm also integrating my book production process into that of Pearson's.The next visible targets are a second round of technical review and the launching of a roughcut. We're hoping to get these going in the next couple of months. The roughcut will also allow people other than official… -
Apologies for Canceling Texas Speaking Events
I’m afraid I’ve had to cancel my speaking events in Dallas and Austin next week due to a family medical problem. As I write this, it’s not clear how serious the problem is going to be, but there is a good chance that I won’t be able to travel to Texas next week. As a result we felt it was best to cancel the events, while we still have a few days notice. We do intent to reschedule as soon the as dust settles. My Texas ThoughtWorkers are very keen to have me come out and do these talks, so we want to do them as soon as we reasonably can. My apologies for this, and I hope… -
TechnicalDebtQuadrant
There's been a few posts over the last couple of months about TechnicalDebt that's raised the question of what kinds of design flaws should or shouldn't be classified as Technical Debt. A good example of this is Uncle Bob's post saying a mess is not a debt. His argument is that messy code, produced by people who are ignorant of good design practices, shouldn't be a debt. Technical Debt should be reserved for cases when people have made a considered decision to adopt a design strategy that isn't sustainable in the longer term, but yields a short term benefit, such as making a release. The…
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Paul Graham: Essays
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Apple's Mistake
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What Startups Are Really Like
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Persuade xor Discover
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Post-Medium Publishing
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The List of N Things
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ProBlogger Blog Tips
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Blog Like a Cartoonist – Six Stunning Secrets to Help You Break Through Bloggers Block
9 Feb 2010 | 11:24 amAnd now for a guest post with a difference from Cartoonist Mark Anderson from Andertoons.com who created this comic to illustrate the writing techniques he uses to create his cartoons, and how they can help bloggers push through writer’s block. Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger. Blog Like a Cartoonist – Six Stunning Secrets to Help You Break Through Bloggers Block Share This -
Have a 37 Minute Coffee Break with Me [Audio Interview]
9 Feb 2010 | 5:43 amIf you have a spare 37 minutes today to grab a coffee with me (or at least are doing something that will allow you to listen to something for 37 minutes in the background) check out this interview I did with Robb Sutton late last week. Robb’s also transcribed it for those who prefer to read. In the interview Rob asks me about a whole range of stuff including: my background in blogging my philosophy on lots of sites vs focusing upon a single (or just a few) sites the process of going full time (and my wife’s six month ultimatum) my shift in focus to e-books and membership sites a… -
What Is Your Blogging Goal for February?
8 Feb 2010 | 6:22 amA few days back I asked readers a question: What Have You Been Putting Off and What’s Holding You Back? Some of the responses to the question in comments (and via email and Twitter) revealed a lot of bloggers really wanting to step things up and get what they’ve been putting off done. So – lets set some goals – what do you want to achieve by the end of February? I’m not going to be calling you up to check up to see if you’re meeting your goals – but hopefully in putting them down publicly you’ll find yourself a little more spurred on to reach… -
9 Tricks I Used To Triple My AdSense Earnings In 30 Days
7 Feb 2010 | 6:34 amGuest post by Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips. I have been using Google AdSense to monetize my blogs and websites for as long as I remember. In fact it was the first method I ever tried (I made a whooping $15 on my first month… back in 2005). Over the years I migrated to other methods (e.g., direct sponsors and affiliate marketing), which made AdSense become merely an inventory filler. I was still making around $1,000 monthly from it, but whenever I could I would use other methods over it. Then some months ago I started noticing an upward trend on the CPC of my sites, and I figured that… -
How I Got Some Paying Sponsors Without Really Meaning To
6 Feb 2010 | 6:21 amA guest post by Josh Hanagarne. World’s Strongest Librarian was about four months old when I got interested in sponsors. I’d read the articles about how to do it, and none of them sounded that plausible for me and my situation. For one, my traffic wasn’t impressive, certainly not to the point where sponsors were approaching me. And, while my blog has become slightly more focused in its first ten months, it wasn’t targeted at any group of readers in particular, so I wasn’t sure how confident niche advertisers would be. It’s a little more focused now, but I can’t really think of a…
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Chris Garrett on New Media
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How to Sell More From Your Blog (Blog Critique: Steven Aitchison)
15 Jan 2010 | 3:54 amSteven Aitchison has a strong blog. Most people would regard his site as a success (in fact he claims it as the “biggest personal development blog in the UK) .. It looks good (using a slightly customized Thesis install) Steven is a good writer therefore the articles are excellent (in fact freelance writing is one of the services Steven offers) He has a large blog and email audience, with nearly 7k RSS subscribers alone (dwarfing some blogging and internet marketing blogs) Traffic is very healthy, and growing (again, dwarfing some blogs that provide traffic advice) Comments are plentiful… -
Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work for You and How to Fix it
11 Jan 2010 | 10:42 amI was reminded on Twitter by a quote how life coaches and gurus often talk about how sports people visualize victory. They say if you use positive visualization, then your outcome will improve. Then there are the people who tell you that if you use the “Law of Attraction”, that is if you ask the universe for something, and you believe, then what you ask for will come to you. The problem is, for most people, experience does not match what they are taught. And that sucks. In the headline I make a promise that you can make positive thinking work. How? Let’s look at this… -
Defeating Procrastination: Become a Finisher
6 Jan 2010 | 3:58 amAnalysis paralysis is just one of my procrastination challenges. A couple of other things have caused me to have to make an effort with my productivity. See if they are familiar to you and your own productivity issues: I have a compulsion to fix things I never think I have done enough Do you have the same problems? The mission here is to go from someone who is never happy with their work, never quite complete, to being someone who finishes and moves on. I have managed it (with a great deal of effort on occasion), and so can you. My big ah-ha moment came when I realized what I was seeing when… -
Go Beyond Blogging in 2010
31 Dec 2009 | 5:16 amYou might have already seen some of my fellow bloggers talking about this product. So much that I actually avoided posting about it because I felt with my Authority Blogger launch you might have gotten sick of hearing me toot my horn, until Michelle gave me an email bottom-kicking … So here I am telling you about it. beyond-blogging is an ebook by two friends from the blogosphere, Mike and Nathan. Both very cool guys, and judging from the names they managed to get to agree to interviews, very persuasive. What they have done is grilled a whole bunch of successful bloggers to find out why… -
Win SEO Audits and Advice from DynamoAsh
4 Dec 2009 | 1:55 amWin Free SEO Consulting If you want lots of free traffic then you are going to need to get your Search Engine Optimization sorted. Most of us are not SEO gurus so we try our best and see what happens. That can never compare with the advice of a true “battle hardened” SEO veteran. Good news everyone! DynamoAsh is offering chrisg.com readers a great set of SEO consulting prizes One grand prize winner will get a full Advanced SEO Audit where Ash will analyze your site and then give you all the advice you need to get your Google on! Two randomly selected blog commenters or Twitter…
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Daily Blog Tips
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Book Review: Crush It!
9 Feb 2010 | 6:29 amI just finished reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s first book last week, so lets get on with its review. The title is Crush It!: Why NOW Is The Time To Cash In Your Passion. 1. The book: Crush It! is a book about finding your passion and profiting from it online. Gary V. did just that, and he wanted to share with other people how to follow on his steps. The book has 132 pages, which means you could read it within a week. 2. The content: The beginning of the book is about why you need to follow you passion, and how Gary did it with his wine business, taking the revenues from $4 to over $60… -
The Mass Guest Bloggging Strategy: Can You Do It?
8 Feb 2010 | 7:30 amA couple of weeks ago I wrote a post saying that I needed to hustle more, and one of the goals I set to myself was to reach 50,000 subscribers by July 21. Many readers posted a comment or emailed me asking how I planned to achieve that goal. Well, I have many things in mind, and I’ll talk about them individually. Today I want to talk about the first strategy I’ll use: mass guest blogging. You already know what guest blogging is, and why it is an effective promotional strategy. It basically allows you to reach a new audience, to network with fellow bloggers, and to receive some… -
Should I Put My Product Landing Page Inside My Blog Or On A New Domain?
5 Feb 2010 | 5:29 amThis post is part of the Friday Q&A section. Just use the contact form if you want to submit a question. Vijay asks: How to build a product landing page to sell our own products through our blog? Should we develop a page on the same domain, or should we put it on another domain? In reality there are two questions there: the first one is about how to create landing pages, and the second one is whether you should place that landing page inside your blog or create a dedicated domain just for it. I will answer the latter question today, and the other one will be covered next Friday. As… -
BecomeABlogger.com Re-Opens With a $1 Trial
4 Feb 2010 | 7:28 amYaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick are re-opening their Become A Blogger coaching program today. And the cool thing is that they are offering a $1 trial offer, so read on if you are interested. Become A Blogger is step-by-step video coaching program that will teach you all you need to know to build a successful blog. Here are the 8 modules covered: Get Your Blog Up And Running Fast And FREE How To Optimize Your Blog For Maximum Search Engine Performance How To Create Powerful Content For Your Blog, Consistently and Without Fail How To Use Images On Your Blog To Make You Stand Out From The Crowd… -
Get Rich Blogging: Fact or Fiction?
2 Feb 2010 | 7:22 pmThis is a guest post by Jonas Adamson. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here. It’s harder than ever to spend even a few minutes online these days without bumping into some get-rich-quick story or advertisement, whether it’s news about Ponzi schemes netting crooked financiers billions of dollars or annoying Google sidebar paid ads promising you that you’ll make $7,287,964/hour working from home, stuffing envelopes. The siren’s call of easy money is a tempting one, indeed, and it’s even trickling down to the world of blogging, with…
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Business Blogs: How to Build A Better Blog
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Business Blog Review - Chronic Illness Coach Blog
9 Feb 2010 | 8:31 amA couple of weeks ago I announced that I would pick 2-3 blogs to do quickie blog reviews - a 5-10 minute screencast video to point out a few things bloggers can do to boost the effectivness of their blogs.I got over 130 entries! As much as I would like to, I just didn't have time to look at every blog that was submitted to decide which to choose. I had my VA create a spreadsheet with all the names and blog URLs and then I used random.org to choose 3 numbers. The winners have to agree to let me post the reviews publicly, here on this blog and on video distribution sites like YouTube and Vimeo,… -
Without Traffic Your Content Doesn't Get Read
7 Feb 2010 | 1:39 pmHow to drive traffic to your blog or web site is a hot, hot, hot topic. It goes without saying that if you don't have traffic, your content, no matter how great, is invisible so whether you want organic traffic from search engine results or you want traffic from social networks, you must actively work to get it and there are many tactics you can implement. At the recent Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems workshop, I shared the stage with Willie Crawford and we did a session on tips and tricks for driving traffic. Willie is a master and shared how he repurposes his articles in numerous ways. … -
21 Tips for Driving Traffic to Your Blog or Website
3 Feb 2010 | 9:36 amAt the recent Niche Affiliate Marketing System event, I had the honor of sharing the stage with the amazing Willie Crawford, a legend in the Internet Marketing world. We did an informal presentation about how to drive more traffic to your sites. While Willie was doing a presentation on list building, I made a quick list of 21 ways to drive traffic. We used my list as a starting point and had a great discussion that went nearly 90 minutes (you can get the audio of this session and all the other awesome speakers for only $97). After the presentation, the audience asked for my list. Since it… -
14 Mistakes Many Business Bloggers Make
29 Jan 2010 | 8:01 amWhen I do one on one business blog reviews, I almost always find the same problems. On Sunday I'll be doing blogging hot seat reviews at the Niche Affiliate Marketing System workshop. Here's a list of a few things I'll be looking for when I do the reviews. Study the list and then take a look at your blog. Are you making these mistakes?Are you making these mistakes on your business blog?Content1. Not posting frequently enough.2. Content is not focused or optimized for the search engines.3. Articles are too long. (I know I said there are no rules, and you have to take online reader behavior… -
Blogging Hot Seat - Submit Your Blog for A Quickie Blog Review
26 Jan 2010 | 9:57 amWant to sit on the blogging hot seat? I'm prepping for my business blogging presentation at the Niche Affiliate Marketing System event on Sunday. First I'm giving a presentation about blogging, then I'm conducting a one hour blogging hot seat where I will review 2-3 blogs (22 blogs were submitted for consideration by the participants!) and demonstrate how they can be improved and what makes an effective, optimized blog. You'll be able to "watch" vicariously if you follow the #NAMS twitter stream 10 am - 1 pm ET. Then I got an idea (actually it was inspired by a conversation with my colleague…
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Write to Done
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A Writer’s Greatest Tool: the Smartphone
7 Feb 2010 | 7:32 amA guest post by David Pierce from Digitizd I’m a writer, and I don’t carry a notebook around with me. Heck, I don’t even carry a pen. Do people even use those anymore? Pens. So old school. Instead, I just use my cell phone. In my life as a writer, there’s been no tool more useful or worth the investment than a smartphone. For such a small device, its benefits are enormous. For writers, the benefits might not be as obvious as they are for, say, money managers, but they‚Äôre no less fantastic. Since owning a smartphone (mostly meaning a phone with a functional… -
What Lance Armstrong Can Teach Us About Motivation
3 Feb 2010 | 7:46 amA guest post by Diggy from UpgradeReality.com. Let me paint a little picture. Allow your imagination to go to work. It’s a beautiful sunny afternoon, you’ve just stuffed yourself with a great lunch and you’re all stretched out on your couch. Flipping the channels on your TV to find something that you will allow to steal your afternoon away. You have plenty of ideas you want to start and projects you want to complete, but you can’t get yourself off that couch and get motivated to get to work and start writing. < How Do You Find Motivation? The answer to this question… -
A New Way to Look At Writing Blog Posts
1 Feb 2010 | 7:48 amA guest post by Glen Allsopp who writes about Viral marketing. I wrote my first blog post back in 2006. At the time, blogging was just starting to be used as a way to connect with your audience and attract more eyeballs to your products and services. Back then, I didn’t care about building a readership or writing posts that hit the Digg homepage, I simply kept writing content so that Google would send me more traffic. Of course, a lot has changed since then. I now couldn’t care less about search engine traffic to my blog and instead focus all of my energy on building a vibrant,… -
How to Leave Your Readers Better Than You Found Them
28 Jan 2010 | 3:00 amA guest post by Nathalie Lussier of Raw Foods Witch Why do you write your blog? Maybe you are writing to share your point of view, help others, or just get things off your chest. No matter what the reason you write for your blog, you need to learn how to craft each post to have the greatest impact on your reader. Your readers are granting you their valuable attention, after all. How storytelling applies to blogging In an effort to expand my skills as a blogger, I started reading about the power of storytelling. Storytelling is an age old tradition that is as natural to human beings as… -
The Ultimate Playground: Blogosphere
25 Jan 2010 | 7:00 amA Guest Post by Tomas Stonkus of Uncertain Change I have one question for you: “When did you grow up?” OKAY, that is actually just the first question. Here’s the rest. Do you remember that exact moment when you decided to stop having fun and start being serious? Do you know when your careless smile was replaced by a frown? Do you know when you stopped believing in your dreams and decided to become reasonable? Maybe it was around the time when you stopped playing. Until that point, the whole world seemed to be your playground! There were no rules, no limitations. Everybody…
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Zen Habits
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On minimalism
8 Feb 2010 | 12:26 pmPost written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. How does ’simple’ differ from ‘minimalist’? That’s the question someone asked me on Twitter recently, and it’s a good one. Zen Habits has become known as a leading simplicity blog, and at the same time I recently started mnmlist, a blog about minimalism. Why the two blogs? What’s the difference? It’s an important question as it forces us to examine each concept a little more closely. First, let’s acknowledge that the two concepts are related, and in some ways are two ways of saying the… -
12 Classic Zen Habits Posts You Might Not Have Read
6 Feb 2010 | 4:37 pm“There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. This morning I found myself lying around, enjoying a lazy weekend with my wife and kids, basking in the peaceful simplicity of today. It’s in these moments that I find not only my greatest happiness, but my purpose in life. I am here not to achieve or even to change the world, but simply to live. Life is a gift, and I’m happy to accept every moment of it. And so, in this spirit, I thought I’d dig through my archives and share a few favorite posts, to… -
9 Unconventional Steps to a Thriving, “Very Small” Business
4 Feb 2010 | 7:00 amEditor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity. For more than ten years I’ve operated a string of one-man businesses. My model is: keep it lean, hire no one, and outsource very little. I’ve made my share of mistakes (a long list!), but one thing has remained constant—I want to add extreme value to my customers, and I want to make a good living without simply creating a job for myself. Here’s what I’ve learned. 1. Hire no one. My Unconventional Guides business took off in early 2009, and for a while I felt an internal… -
Zen Habits Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1 Feb 2010 | 2:57 pmPost written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. I get asked a lot of questions, many of them repeatedly, and I figured instead of answering them all over and over, I’d compile my answers for everyone here. Of course, there’s a lot more about me and this site on the About page, and I’d always love it if you checked out the Books page. I hope you find this useful! 1. Why did you turn off comments on Zen Habits? This has been the most difficult decision I’ve made since starting Zen Habits, as I truly loved comments here. I love hearing from readers, and it was my… -
How Not to Hurry
28 Jan 2010 | 4:56 pm“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~ Lao Tzu Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. Consider the above quote from Lao Tzu, (perhaps mythical) father of Taoism: how can it be true? Is it possible to never hurry, but to get everything done? It seems contradictory to our modern world, where everything is a rush, where we try to cram as much into every minute of the day as possible, where if we are not busy, we feel unproductive and lazy. In fact, often we compete by trying to show how busy we are. I have a thousand projects to do! Oh yeah? I have 10,000! The…
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The Happiness Project
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Are You in a Book Group? Want a Reading Group Guide?
8 Feb 2010 | 8:27 amHappiness is a great book group meeting! I'm in three book groups -- one in which we read books aimed at adults, two in which we read book aimed at children and young adults. Being part of these books groups is among the joys of my life. So I'm a big fan of book groups. In general, I've heard, book groups don't choose books that are only available in hardback, so I've been surprised to hear from a lot of people that their groups have read The Happiness Project. It's thrilling to imagine a book group reading my book. Zoikes! If you do choose The Happiness Project, if you'd be interested, you… -
"There Is Certainly No Greater Happiness..."
8 Feb 2010 | 5:44 am“There is certainly no greater happiness, than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.” -- Samuel Johnson * A reader sent me the link to this fabulous item on etsy -- a great, stylish way to track resolutions. I love it! * Want to launch a group for people doing happiness projects together? I'm in a group like that myself, and I love it! If so, read more here and sign up here for a starter kit to help get you going. -
Schedule Time for Play.
5 Feb 2010 | 11:54 amI’m working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project. One of my favorite resolutions – but also kept with great difficulty – is to Schedule time for play. I often get teased about this resolution, because people think it sounds incongruous, and even silly, to schedule time for play. Play should be spontaneous, right? Aren’t we naturally alert for… -
Happiness Is…A Great Book Event in Toronto.
5 Feb 2010 | 11:38 amI had such a great time in Toronto – I’d never been to Toronto, or even Canada, before this trip. I met a lot of interesting people during the day, and last night the famous Heather Reisman of Indigo Books and I had a conversation at one of the wonderful Indigo bookstores. Interesting note about Toronto: I saw a street sign that said, “Pedestrians obey your signals.” You don’t see this in New York City! We dart out the minute we see a break in traffic. * Interested in starting your own happiness project? If you’d like to take a look at my personal Resolutions Chart, for… -
"Marriage is About...Tea, Doctor's Appointments, Trivia, Quirks."
4 Feb 2010 | 10:39 amFrom time to time, I post short interviews with interesting people about their insights on happiness. During my study of happiness, I’ve noticed that I often learn more from one person’s highly idiosyncratic experiences than I do from sources that detail universal principles or cite up-to-date studies. I’m much more likely to be convinced to try a piece of advice urged by a specific person who tells me that it worked for him or her, than by any other kind of argument. The relationships among love, marriage, and expectations are some of the most complex and important issues within the…
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PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement
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Simplifying Your Life: Why Less Is More
9 Feb 2010 | 1:28 amWe’ve done the binge thing for awhile; now it’s time to do the purge thing. Most of us have a tremendous amount of excess. Too many expenses, too much stuff, too many commitments and responsibilities. Do you dream of calm over chaos? Do you wish you could hit a button and be transformed to the tranquility of another era? You can create an oasis of peace for yourself and your family, but you’re going to have to relearn what it means to simplify as I bust the top three myths about the subject over the next month. Myth #1 – Simplifying means having and doing less. -
How to Stop Waiting for Permission
8 Feb 2010 | 10:03 amWhen you were a child, you often had to wait for permission to do something. Perhaps you needed to be a certain age before you were allowed to use the oven or cross the road by yourself. Maybe you needed to ask mom before you got a snack. Even as a teen, you had to stick to rules: curfew, acceptable music volume, homework… Once you’re eighteen, you’re free to do what you want (within the bounds of legality). So why do we get stuck waiting for permission? You’ll know what I mean, even if you’ve never consciously acknowledged it. Maybe: You’re waiting for someone to say that… -
How To Bust Stress With Mindfulness
4 Feb 2010 | 11:02 pmAre you worrying, hurrying or stressed? Stress comes with a long list of damaging effects of stress like heart disease, high blood pressure, accelerated aging, anxiety, depression, anger, forgetfulness, learning difficulty and sleep disorder. When we are stressed, we try to forget about stress by doing something else such as shopping, eating, watching a movie, listening to music, or even taking mind altering substances. By doing so, we might get a temporary relief from the stress but often end up more stressed. A good news is that scientists discovered very effective way of reducing stress… -
6 Traits that Separate Winners from Whiners
4 Feb 2010 | 9:54 amHave you ever been blind sided by an unexpected event that threatened to throw your dreams, hopes, and life plans off-course? If nothing that grandiose has happened (lucky you!), how about just being surprised by small obstacles that threaten to ruin your day? Big or small, unexpected events will happen. You can not avoid them, you can only control how you respond to them. It is in those critical moments after the unexpected occurs that ultimately determine your long term success. Think about it: anyone can do well when everything is going great. What separates people who succeed (the… -
Should Your Child Be Learning Mandarin?
3 Feb 2010 | 9:33 amReports in the NY Times and elsewhere point to the rise of Chinese language instruction in our schools, against the backdrop of the demise of language learning in general. People justify this rush to Chinese by referring to the growth of the Chinese economy. The US government has declared Chinese a “critical language.” How realistic is this Chinese boom, and will it last? Here is a reality check. 1) Chinese will probably not help your kid get a job. Chinese is being touted as the language of the future, given the growth of the Chinese economy. Some predict that a knowledge of…
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Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog
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How You Give Your Power Away
2 Feb 2010 | 12:38 pmOne of the themes that repeatedly came up at the last Conscious Growth Workshop was the problem of giving your power away. Instead of focusing on your true desires, you erect false structures in front of your desires and then feed your power to those structures as a delay tactic. Here are some typical scenarios of how people give away their power in different areas of their lives: Relationships Let’s say that your true desire is to be in love. You want a relationship with someone special. You want someone that you can smooch, cuddle, play with, and make love to. You want to be with… -
2010 Conscious Growth Workshops
28 Jan 2010 | 1:49 pmOur second Conscious Growth Workshop January 15-17 was another amazing weekend of fun and personal breakthroughs. It was a real treat to see so many conscious growth enthusiasts coming together in one place. CGW #3, 4, and 5 We’re already in the process of booking the next 3 CGWs for the remainder of 2010. All of these will be held in Las Vegas. This info is still very tentative, but I wanted to give you a heads up since many people have been inquiring about future workshop dates. Most likely CGW #3 will be May 14-16, 2010 (Fri-Sun). CGW #4 will probably be in July or August. CGW #5… -
How to Build a Stronger Ego
20 Jan 2010 | 9:30 amThere’s a notion that’s been spread around the spiritual side of the self-help field that suggests one of our primary aims in life should be ego-less enlightenment, a state where we achieve near-perfect inner peace, where we’re one with everything but attached to nothing, and where nothing in the physical world can knock us off balance. This creates some personal challenges for me because whenever I write about anything remotely spiritual in nature (and sometimes even when I don’t), some readers assume I’m one of the guys promoting this same sort of ideal. Then… -
Domination-Submission and Personal Growth
7 Jan 2010 | 6:22 amI want to share some thoughts on an interesting dynamic I’ve been observing as I continue to explore domination and submission (D/s) with my consensual slave partner. A key aspect of personal growth is that in order to grow, we must stretch beyond our comfort zones and experience something new. If we stay within our comfort zones and stick to the familiar, we deny ourselves the opportunity for expansion. Yet we don’t know for certain how new possibilities will impact us until we dive in and experience them. Many years ago I thought about being an entrepreneur. Since I’d… -
Domination and Submission
4 Jan 2010 | 5:10 pmAs I mentioned in my 2010 Focus post, my personal focus for this year involves immersing myself in the fun and exciting world of domination and submission (D/s). (I really love my life!) Now one obvious question I’ve been asked a few times is: What the heck does this have to do with personal development? Once you get past the socially conditioned attitude that D/s is somehow naughty or deviant, you’ll find that it has a tremendous amount to do with personal development. Let’s start with some of the most basic elements and go from there. Body Image First, when you consciously…
