Faraznama

Trading favors

2012-01-31T18:25:00.000-05:00

Beautiful critique of rampant 'Liking'.

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Now that everyone has a media platform, look for even more of the mutual back scratching that comes from tracking favors.

The most corrosive sort of this network amplification goes like this: I do something for you unasked. Then I do something again. Perhaps I even tout you or your work a third time. Then I come to you, point out how generous I've been and ask for you to do something for me. Or I network my way to one person and then use that platform to reach three more, and repeat until I've worked the entire digital room.

Humans have a natural openness to reciprocity. It's a time-honored survival technique, one that allowed us to live together in villages for millenia. Someone who doesn't reciprocate is less likely to be protected by his peers, right? Not only have we been taught reciprocation since birth, but it feels right. It's baked in.

The problem occurs when the trading of favors become mercenary, when alert individuals start manipulating the system for personal gain. Suddenly, every favor is suspect, measured and not at all generous. Suddenly all the likes and links and blurbs become nothing but currency, not the honest appraisals of people we can trust. It means that bystanders have trouble telling the difference between honest approval and the mere mutual shilling of traded favors.

Yes, you can trade your way up, but at some point, the very people who were influenced by all your trades start to realize that you can't be trusted.

Mutual funds deserve to be rigorously measured and relentlessly traded. Favors and taste and allegiances, though, not so much. Like is too important to be something you do because you have to.

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Access to access

2012-01-24T18:45:00.001-05:00

What's standing in your way? What would help you start and ship and create something of value?

Access to ideas is easier than ever before. You can see over the shoulders of the great leaders in every industry, instantly and for free.

Access to tools is easier too. Every digital tool in the world is easily available, often for free.

Access to markets? The internet brings every market segment into clear view and lowers the cost of reaching it.

Access to capital? It's never been easier to find funding for an idea that's enabled by the efficiencies the web creates.

Alas, the only access that's harder than ever is access to the part of your brain that's willing to take advantage of all of this. Precisely because it's easier and faster than ever before, it's easy to be afraid to reach out, to connect and to commit. No one can help you with that but you.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/eH1i9YIti8k/access-to-access.html

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Your voice will give you away

2012-01-18T19:22:00.001-05:00

It's extremely difficult to read a speech and sound as if you mean it.

For most of us, when reading, posture changes, the throat tightens and people can tell. Reading is different from speaking, and a different sort of attention is paid.

Before you give a speech, then, you must do one of two things if your goal is to persuade:

Learn to read the same way you speak (unlikely)

or, learn to speak without reading. Learn your message well enough that you can communicate it without reading it. We want your humanity.

If you can't do that, don't bother giving a speech. Just send everyone a memo and save time and stress for all concerned.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/0Z17rDh2flU/your-voice-will-give-you-away.html

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One option is to struggle to be heard whenever you're in the room...

2012-01-18T19:17:00.001-05:00

Another is to be the sort of person who is missed when you're not.

The first involves making noise. The second involves making a difference.

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Simple thoughts about fair use

2012-01-18T19:15:00.001-05:00

If this is my potato chip, then it's not yours. You can't touch it, eat it or use it for any reason whatsoever, not without asking first. Copyright doesn't work that way.

There is a yin to the yang of copyright protection, and it's called Fair Use. Fair use permits scholars to do their thing, permits those that would do parody or commentary or comparison to be heard. I'm not talking about taking someone's work to make it into a poster or some sort of endorsement--I'm talking about the need for us to be able to comment on each other's work.

Without fair use, it would be impossible to write a negative book review, or compare Shakespeare to the Simpsons. Without fair use, it becomes just about impossible to have a thoughtful discussion about anything that's been published since you were born.

Most web users should know a few simple guidelines, principles so simple that you can generally assume them to be rules. (Worth noting that whether you are in the right or not, a lawyer on retainer can still hassle you--not fair but true):

You don't need to ask someone's permission to include a link to their site.
You don't need to ask permission to include a screen shot of a website in a directory, comment on that site or parody it.
You can quote hundreds of words from a book (for an article or book or on your website) without worrying about it and you certainly don't need a signed release from the original author or publisher. Poems and songs are special exceptions. Then you can worry.

There's a difference between being polite and observing the law. If you quote something (an idea, a notion, a recipe), the right thing to do is give credit.

Photos are a real issue, unless you are clearly commenting on the photo (as opposed to using the photo to make a point that a different photo could make as easily). When in doubt, be the person who took the picture. (Aside: Compfight has an easy to use setting--do a search and hit "commercial" in the left hand column and voila--CC licensed photos, ready to go.)

PS as soon as you make something and fix it in a tangible form, you own the copyright in it. No requirement that you register it with anyone. Putting a © notice is certainly a helpful way to let people know you consider it yours, but the law makes it clear that merely writing your creation down confers copyright to you. And... "all rights reserved" doesn't mean anything any more, just fyi.

PPS Here's what happens when the lawyers go (way) too far.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/kCNq5aOMt64/simple-thoughts-about-fair-use.html

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The chance of a lifetime

2012-01-13T18:45:00.000-05:00

Great post from Seth.

-------

A friend asked me the other day, "...given the sorry state of so much in the world, what's possible to look forward to?"

The state isn't sorry. It's wide open.

Interest rates are super low, violence is close to an all time low, industries are being remade and there's more leverage for the insurgent outsider than ever before in history.

The status quo is taking a beating, there's no question about it. That's what makes it a revolution.

I said this nine years ago and I stand by it. In the years since I wrote this essay, people have started social movements, built billion dollar companies, toppled dictators, found new jobs, learned new skills and generally made a ruckus.

Go!

Hindsight is 20/20. People are already looking back on the 1990s and wishing that they had had more courage. When you look back on the 2000s, what will you have to say for yourself? [The following is reprinted from 9 years ago].

Here's a question that you should clip out and tape to your bathroom mirror. It might save you some angst 15 years from now. The question is, What did you do back when interest rates were at their lowest in 50 years, crime was close to zero, great employees were looking for good jobs, computers made product development and marketing easier than ever, and there was almost no competition for good news about great ideas?

Many people will have to answer that question by saying, "I spent my time waiting, whining, worrying, and wishing." Because that's what seems to be going around these days. Fortunately, though, not everyone will have to confess to having made such a bad choice.

While your company has been waiting for the economy to rebound, Reebok has launched Travel Trainers, a very cool-looking lightweight sneaker for travelers. They are selling out in Japan -- from vending machines in airports!

While Detroit's car companies have been whining about gas prices and bad publicity for SUVs (SUVs are among their most profitable products), Honda has been busy building cars that look like SUVs but get twice the gas mileage. The Honda Pilot was so popular, it had a waiting list.

While Africa's economic plight gets a fair amount of worry, a little startup called ApproTEC is actually doing something about it. The new income that its products generate accounts for 0.5% of the entire GDP of Kenya. How? It manufactures a $75 device that looks a lot like a StairMaster. But it's not for exercise. Instead, ApproTEC sells the machine to subsistence farmers, who use its stair-stepping feature to irrigate their land. People who buy it can move from subsistence farming to selling the additional produce that their land yields -- and triple their annual income in the first year of using the product.

While you've been wishing for the inspiration to start something great, thousands of entrepreneurs have used the prevailing sense of uncertainty to start truly remarkable companies. Lucrative Web businesses, successful tool catalogs, fast-growing PR firms -- all have started on a shoestring, and all have been profitable ahead of schedule. The Web is dead, right? Well, try telling that to Meetup.com, a new Web site that helps organize meetings anywhere and on any topic. It has 200,000 registered users -- and counting.

Maybe you already have a clipping on your mirror that asks you what you did during the 1990s. What's your biggest regret about that decade? Do you wish that you had started, joined, invested in, or built something? Are you left wishing that you'd at least had the courage to try? In hindsight, the 1990s were the good old days. Yet so many people missed out. Why? Because it's always possible to find a reason to stay put, to skip an opportunity, or to decline an offer. And yet, in retrospect, it's hard to remember why we said no and easy to wish that we had said yes.

The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing.

Are these crazy times? You bet they are. But so were the days when we were doing duck-and-cover air-raid drills in school, or going through the scares of Three Mile Island and Love Canal. There will always be crazy times.

So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start thinking about what the crazy times demand. There has never been a worse time for business as usual. Business as usual is sure to fail, sure to disappoint, sure to numb our dreams. That's why there has never been a better time for the new. Your competitors are too afraid to spend money on new productivity tools. Your bankers have no idea where they can safely invest. Your potential employees are desperately looking for something exciting, something they feel passionate about, something they can genuinely engage in and engage with.

You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide.

Before you finish this paragraph, you have the power to change everything that's to come. And you can do that by asking yourself (and your colleagues) the one question that every organization and every individual needs to ask today: Why not be great?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/DK2sVjQ7FzQ/the-chance-of-a-lifetime.html

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Merry

2011-12-28T18:34:00.000-05:00

You can't be merry by yourself.

Sure, you can be content, happy, possibly even delirious. But merriment requires a group, and that group is almost always a group you can see and touch, one that's sharing the same molecules of air, face to face.

The digital revolution continues to get deeper, wider and more important. But it has made no progress at all at increasing merriment. That's up to us.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/wGQlu54pS9E/merry.html

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Q&A

2011-12-28T18:31:00.000-05:00

I'm often stunned by the lack of questions that adults are prepared to ask.

When you see kids go on a field trip, the questions pour out of them. Never ending, interesting, deep... even risky.

And then the resistance kicks in and we apparently lose the ability.

Is the weather the only thing you can think to ask about? A great question is one you can ask yourself, one that disturbs your status quo and scares you a little bit.

The A part is easy. We're good at answers. Q, not so much.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/4C924x3VddQ/qa.html

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Unexpected turbulence

2011-12-22T19:02:00.000-05:00

Is there really any other kind?

If we see turbulence coming, we tend to avoid it. The art is in knowing that turbulence might come and looking forward to it, bracing for it and embracing it at the same time.

If your plan will only succeed if there is no turbulence at any time, it's probably not a very good plan (either that or you're not going anywhere interesting.)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/UBTOOe-IRy8/unexpected-turbulence.html

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The simple first rule of branding and marketing anything (even yourself)

2011-12-19T20:39:00.001-05:00

Not a secret, often overlooked:

"Keep your promises."

If you say you'll show up every day at 8 am, do so. Every day.

If you say your service is excellent, make it so.

If circumstances or priorities change, well then, invest to change them back. Or tell the truth, and mean it.

If traffic might be bad, plan for it.

Is there actually unusually heavy call volume? Really?

Want a bigger brand? Make bigger promises. And keep them.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/smG3PD3jaSc/the-simple-first-rule-of-branding-and-marketing-anything-even-yourself.html

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Assorted tips, hope they help

2011-12-19T20:07:00.000-05:00

No stranger or unknown company will ever contact you by mail or by phone with an actual method for making money easily or in your spare time. And if the person or company contacting you asserts that they are someone you know, double check before taking action.
Don't have back surgery. See a physiatrist first, then exhaust all other options before wondering if you should have back surgery.
Borrow money to buy things that go up in value, but never to get something that decays over time.
Placebos are underrated by almost everyone.
It's almost never necessary to use a semicolon.
Seek out habits that help you overcome fear or inertia. Destroy those that do the opposite.
Cognitive behavorial therapy is generally considered both the quickest and most effective form of addressing many common psychological problems.
Backup your hard drive.
Get a magnetic key hider, put a copy of your house key in it and hide it really well, unlabeled, two blocks from your house.
A rice cooker will save you time and money and improve your diet, particularly if you come to like brown rice.
Consider not eating wheat for an entire week. The results might surprise you.
Taking your dog for a walk is usually better than whatever alternative use of your time you were considering.

Told you they were assorted.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/S3Il1UzzC60/assorted-tips-hope-they-help.html

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Tools vs insight

2011-12-05T21:47:00.000-05:00

How is your vocabulary? It's a vital tool, certainly. Do you know these words?

a, after, and, as, die, eternal, first, gets, gun, have, in, is, job, life, me, mouth, my, pushing, saying, step, that, the, to, Tyler, waiter, you.

How about these?

a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

The first list contains every word in the opening lines from Fight Club, the second is the entire word list from Green Eggs and Ham. Of course, neither you nor I wrote either of these, regardless of how well trained we are in what the words (the tools) mean.

Knowing about a tool is one thing. Having the guts to use it in a way that brings art to the world is another. Perhaps we need to spend less time learning new tools and more time using them.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/Nkei70tAVPM/tools-and-insight.html

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The economics of Christmas lights

2011-12-05T21:44:00.001-05:00

Why bother buying them, putting them up, electrifying them and then taking them down again?

After all, the economist wonders, what's in it for you?

The very same non-economic contribution is going on online, every single day. More and more of the content we consume was made by our peers, for free. My take:

People like the way it feels to live in a community filled with decorated houses. They enjoy the drive or the walk through town, seeing the lights, and they want to be part of it, want to contribute and want to be noticed too.

Peace of mind and self-satisfaction are incredibly valuable to us, and we happily pay for them, sometimes contributing to a community in order to get them.

The internet is giving more and more people a highly-leveraged, inexpensive way to share and contribute. It doesn't cost money, it just takes guts, time and kindness.

No wonder most people don't insist on getting paid for their tweets, posts and comments.

Two asides: First, it's interesting to note that no one (zero) gets paid to put up Christmas lights, but some towns are awash in them.

and second, I think there's a parallel to the broken windows theory here. Broken Windows asserts that in cities with small acts of vandalism and unrepaired facades, crime goes up. The Christmas Light corollary might be that in towns (or online communities) where there's a higher rate of profit-free community contribution, happiness and productivity go up as well.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/D1OnV4jp7v8/the-economics-of-christmas-lights.html

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A great way to give thanks...

2011-11-24T18:30:00.001-05:00

for the privileges we've got is to do important work.

Your job, your internet access, your education, your role in a civilized society... all of them are a platform, a chance to do art, a way for you to give back and to honor those that enabled you to get to this point.

For every person reading this there are a thousand people (literally a thousand) in underprivileged nations and situations that would love to have your slot. Don't waste it.

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Self truth (and the best violinist in the world)

2011-11-17T18:35:00.001-05:00

The other day, after a talk to some graduate students at the Julliard School, one asked, "In The Dip, you talk about the advantage of mastery vs. being a mediocre jack of all trades. So does it make sense for me to continue focusing on mastering the violin?"

Without fear of error, I think it's easy to say that this woman will never become the best violinist in the world. That's because it's essentially impossible to be the one and only best violinist in the world. There might be 5,000 or 10,000 people who are so technically good at it as to be indistinguishable to all but a handful of orchestra listeners. This is true for many competitive fields--we might want to fool ourselves into thinking that we have become the one and only best at a technical skill, but it's extremely unlikely.

The quest for technical best is a form of hiding. You can hide from the marketplace because you're still practicing your technique. And you can hide from the hard work of real art and real connection because you decide that success lies in being the best technically, at getting a 99 instead of a 98 on an exam.

What we can become the best at is being an idiosyncratic exception to the standard. Joshua Bell is often mentioned (when violinists are mentioned at all) not because he is technically better than every other violinst, but because of his charisma and willingness to cross categories. He's the best in the world at being Josh Bell, not the best in the world at playing the violin.

The same trap happens to people who are coding in Java, designing furniture or training to be a corporate coach. It's a seductive form of self motivation, the notion that we can push and push and stay inside the lines and through sheer will, become technically perfect and thus in demand. Alas, it's not going to happen for most of us.

[The flipside of this are the practioners who bolster themselves up by claiming that they are, in fact, the most technically adept in the world. In my experience, they're fibbing to themselves when they'd be better off taking the time and effort to practice their craft. Just saying it doesn't make it so.]

Until we're honest with ourselves about what we're going to master, there's no chance we'll accomplish it.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/7dGX0fU2ysw/self-truth-and-the-best-violinist-in-the-world.html

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Worth it?

2011-11-17T18:28:00.000-05:00

That's a question you hear a lot. "Was it worth it?"

Not certain what either "it" refers to, but generally we're saying, "was the destination worth the journey? Was the effort worth the reward?"

The thing about effort is that effort is its own reward if you allow it to be.

So the answer can always be "yes" if you let it.

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When is it okay to start worrying?

2011-10-24T21:31:00.000-04:00

A friend was waiting to hear about the results of a job interview. He hadn't heard in a while and he asked me, "how long before I should start worrying?"

Of course, the answer is, "you should never start worrying."

Worrying is not a useful output. Worrying doesn't change outcomes. Worrying ruins your day. Worrying distracts you from the work at hand. You may have fooled yourself into thinking that it's useful or unavoidable, but it's not. Now you've got one more thing to worry about.

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The difference between management and leadership

2011-10-24T21:24:00.001-04:00

"... We need both"

--------

Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday, but a little faster and a little cheaper.

Leaders, on the other hand, know where they'd like to go, but understand that they can't get there without their tribe, without giving those they lead the tools to make something happen.

Managers want authority. Leaders take responsibility.

We need both. But we have to be careful not to confuse them. And it helps to remember that leaders are scarce and thus more valuable.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/O7HeXwz4j2s/the-difference-between-management-and-leadership.html

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Back to (the wrong) school

2011-10-04T19:54:00.000-04:00

Very thoughtful and thought provoking.

-----

A hundred and fifty years ago, adults were incensed about child labor. Low-wage kids were taking jobs away from hard-working adults.

Sure, there was some moral outrage at seven-year olds losing fingers and being abused at work, but the economic rationale was paramount. Factory owners insisted that losing child workers would be catastrophic to their industries and fought hard to keep the kids at work--they said they couldn't afford to hire adults. It wasn't until 1918 that nationwide compulsory education was in place.

Part of the rationale to sell this major transformation to industrialists was that educated kids would actually become more compliant and productive workers. Our current system of teaching kids to sit in straight rows and obey instructions isn't a coincidence--it was an investment in our economic future. The plan: trade short-term child labor wages for longer-term productivity by giving kids a head start in doing what they're told.

Large-scale education was never about teaching kids or creating scholars. It was invented to churn out adults who worked well within the system.

Of course, it worked. Several generations of productive, fully employed workers followed. But now?

Nobel-prize winning economist Michael Spence makes this really clear: there are tradable jobs (making things that could be made somewhere else, like building cars, designing chairs and answering the phone) and non-tradable jobs (like mowing the lawn or cooking burgers). Is there any question that the first kind of job is worth keeping in our economy?

Alas, Spence reports that from 1990 to 2008, the US economy added only 600,000 tradable jobs.

If you do a job where someone tells you exactly what to do, they will find someone cheaper than you to do it. And yet our schools are churning out kids who are stuck looking for jobs where the boss tells them exactly what to do.

Do you see the disconnect here? Every year, we churn out millions of of workers who are trained to do 1925 labor.

The bargain (take kids out of work so we can teach them to become better factory workers) has set us on a race to the bottom. Some argue we ought to become the cheaper, easier country for sourcing cheap, compliant workers who do what they're told. We will lose that race whether we win it or not. The bottom is not a good place to be, even if you're capable of getting there.

As we get ready for the 93rd year of universal public education, here's the question every parent and taxpayer needs to wrestle with: Are we going to applaud, push or even permit our schools (including most of the private ones) to continue the safe but ultimately doomed strategy of churning out predictable, testable and mediocre factory-workers?

As long as we embrace (or even accept) standardized testing, fear of science, little attempt at teaching leadership and most of all, the bureaucratic imperative to turn education into a factory itself, we're in big trouble.

The post-industrial revolution is here. Do you care enough to teach your kids to take advantage of it?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/csuYxpZcUjI/back-to-the-wrong-school.html

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Expanding the circle of 'missed'

2011-10-04T19:44:00.001-04:00

Would they miss you if you didn't show up? Would they miss your brand or your writing or your leadership?

If you work at the local fast food joint or the local library and you don't show up for work, do they consider shutting the place down? If you're on the team at the ER and you have a bad day, would someone die?

Everyone is capable of being missed. Most of us would be missed by our family if we secretly moved to Perth in the middle of the night. The question, then, is not whether or not you're capable of being missed. The question is whether you will choose to be missed by a wider circle of people.

It's a risk, of course. You have to extend yourself. You must make promises (and then keep them.) More pressure than it might be worth.

Except when it is.

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"I couldn't have done it without you."

2011-10-03T21:48:00.001-04:00

Seeking out the opportunity to say that to your team is at the heart of every successful project.

Of course, that means the members of the team have to decide it's worth the risk to earn it. For some, "indispensable" is threatening.

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The forever recession (and the coming revolution)

2011-10-03T21:44:00.001-04:00

There are actually two recessions:

The first is the cyclical one, the one that inevitably comes and then inevitably goes. There's plenty of evidence that intervention can shorten it, and also indications that overdoing a response to it is a waste or even harmful.

The other recession, though, the one with the loss of "good factory jobs" and systemic unemployment--I fear that this recession is here forever.

Why do we believe that jobs where we are paid really good money to do work that can be systemized, written in a manual and/or exported are going to come back ever? The internet has squeezed inefficiencies out of many systems, and the ability to move work around, coordinate activity and digitize data all combine to eliminate a wide swath of the jobs the industrial age created.

There's a race to the bottom, one where communities fight to suspend labor and environmental rules in order to become the world's cheapest supplier. The problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win...

Factories were at the center of the industrial age. Buildings where workers came together to efficiently craft cars, pottery, insurance policies and organ transplants--these are job-centric activities, places where local inefficiencies are trumped by the gains from mass production and interchangeable parts. If local labor costs the industrialist more, he has to pay it, because what choice does he have?

No longer. If it can be systemized, it will be. If the pressured middleman can find a cheaper source, she will. If the unaffiliated consumer can save a nickel by clicking over here or over there, then that's what's going to happen.

It was the inefficiency caused by geography that permitted local workers to earn a better wage, and it was the inefficiency of imperfect communication that allowed companies to charge higher prices.

The industrial age, the one that started with the industrial revolution, is fading away. It is no longer the growth engine of the economy and it seems absurd to imagine that great pay for replaceable work is on the horizon.

This represents a significant discontinuity, a life-changing disappointment for hard-working people who are hoping for stability but are unlikely to get it. It's a recession, the recession of a hundred years of the growth of the industrial complex.

I'm not a pessimist, though, because the new revolution, the revolution of connection, creates all sorts of new productivity and new opportunities. Not for repetitive factory work, though, not for the sort of thing ADP measures. Most of the wealth created by this revolution doesn't look like a job, not a full time one anyway.

When everyone has a laptop and connection to the world, then everyone owns a factory. Instead of coming together physically, we have the ability to come together virtually, to earn attention, to connect labor and resources, to deliver value.

Stressful? Of course it is. No one is trained in how to do this, in how to initiate, to visualize, to solve interesting problems and then deliver. Some see the new work as a hodgepodge of little projects, a pale imitation of a 'real' job. Others realize that this is a platform for a kind of art, a far more level playing field in which owning a factory isn't a birthright for a tiny minority but something that hundreds of millions of people have the chance to do.

Gears are going to be shifted regardless. In one direction is lowered expectations and plenty of burger flipping... in the other is a race to the top, in which individuals who are awaiting instructions begin to give them instead.

The future feels a lot more like marketing--it's impromptu, it's based on innovation and inspiration, and it involves connections between and among people--and a lot less like factory work, in which you do what you did yesterday, but faster and cheaper.

This means we may need to change our expectations, change our training and change how we engage with the future. Still, it's better than fighting for a status quo that is no longer. The good news is clear: every forever recession is followed by a lifetime of growth from the next thing...

Job creation is a false idol. The future is about gigs and assets and art and an ever-shifting series of partnerships and projects. It will change the fabric of our society along the way. No one is demanding that we like the change, but the sooner we see it and set out to become an irreplaceable linchpin, the faster the pain will fade, as we get down to the work that needs to be (and now can be) done.

This revolution is at least as big as the last one, and the last one changed everything.

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Talker's block

2011-09-26T22:01:00.000-04:00

No one ever gets talker's block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.

Why then, is writer's block endemic?

The reason we don't get talker's block is that we're in the habit of talking without a lot of concern for whether or not our inane blather will come back to haunt us. Talk is cheap. Talk is ephemeral. Talk can be easily denied.

We talk poorly and then, eventually (or sometimes), we talk smart. We get better at talking precisely because we talk. We see what works and what doesn't, and if we're insightful, do more of what works. How can one get talker's block after all this practice?

Writer's block isn't hard to cure.

Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.

I believe that everyone should write in public. Get a blog. Or use Squidoo or Tumblr or a microblogging site. Use an alias if you like. Turn off comments, certainly--you don't need more criticism, you need more writing.

Do it every day. Every single day. Not a diary, not fiction, but analysis. Clear, crisp, honest writing about what you see in the world. Or want to see. Or teach (in writing). Tell us how to do something.

If you know you have to write something every single day, even a paragraph, you will improve your writing. If you're concerned with quality, of course, then not writing is not a problem, because zero is perfect and without defects. Shipping nothing is safe.

The second best thing to zero is something better than bad. So if you know you have write tomorrow, your brain will start working on something better than bad. And then you'll inevitably redefine bad and tomorrow will be better than that. And on and on.

Write like you talk. Often.

(Update: Ira Glass agrees.)

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Seth Godin: We Are All Weird

2011-09-26T21:49:00.000-04:00

My new book launches today. (Link includes translations to three languages and worldwide availability, too).

If you think you'd like it in hardcover, hurry, as we only put a limited number in stock and we have no plans to reprint. Kindle too, of course, without limits.

What are you going to do with your weirdness? Or the weirdness of everyone around you?

During the age of mass (mass marketing, mass manufacturing, mass schooling, mass movements) the key was normal. Normal was important because you needed (were required) to fit into your slot. Manufacturers insisted because profits depended on it.

Normal diets made it easier for mass food manufacturers to generate a profit. Normal driving habits made it easier for mass car manufacturers to reach their production minimums. Normal behavior made you easier to control.

But what happens when mass disappears? When we can connect everyone, customize and optimize--then what happens to normal?

Normal is so ingrained in what we do every day that it's difficult to notice that your tendency toward the normal is now obsolete.

This book is personal, heartfelt and urgent. I hope that you'll take the time to read it. In the words of the philosopher Dr. Seuss, "We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

I'm going to dive into the details here over time, but since you're in a hurry, here are a few early reviews:

"This is a book about giving a damn. It's about caring about what you do and (as importantly) who you do it for. Professional apathy is a relic of a dead era and, as Seth teaches brilliantly, a mentality you cling to at great peril. Everyone with a pulse and a paycheque should be living We Are All Weird."

--Chris Taylor, Founder of ActionableBooks.com (book summary here)

"This book will resonate with anyone who wants to lead a tribe, be authentic, dance to the beat of their own music and make a difference in the world. If your inner critic (the resistance) has been telling you that you are not enough, your work is not good enough and who do you think you are to make a difference, then buy this book. Let your freak flag fly high!"

--Sherold Barr, Master Coach + Freedom Fighter

"Seth has done it again. Open this book to almost any page. Read it, and change your thinking, your work, your life, or better express your art. Weird how he does this, isn't it?"

--Rob Berkley, Executive Coach, VisionDay.com

PS We've done some interesting things with the publishing of this book, and as always, I share the best parts on the Domino blog.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/sKTXabidFwo/we-are-all-weird.html

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Getting serious about your org chart

2011-09-26T08:49:00.000-04:00

Manu's funny brilliance aside, this collection of org charts might help you think hard about why your organization is structured the way it is.

Is it because it was built when geography mattered more than it does now? Is it an artifact of a business that had a factory at its center? Does the org chart you live with every day leverage your best people or does it get in their way?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/XV1Si8_czW4/getting-serious-about-your-org-chart.html

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Khan Academy

2011-05-11T16:06:00.001-04:00

You don't need more time

2011-02-16T18:29:00.000-05:00

...you just need to decide.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/YJFbhZ2sx0g/you-dont-need-more-time.html

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The space matters

2011-02-09T18:46:00.001-05:00

I agree...

-----

It might be a garage or a sunlit atrium, but the place you choose to do what you do has an impact on you.

More people get engaged in Paris in the springtime than on the 7 train in Queens. They just do. Something in the air, I guess.

Pay attention to where you have your brainstorming meetings. Don't have them in the same conference room where you chew people out over missed quarterly earnings.

Pay attention to the noise and the smell and the crowd in the place where you're trying to overcome being stuck. And as Paco Underhill has written, make the aisles of your store wide enough that shoppers can browse without getting their butts brushed by other shoppers.

Most of all, I think we can train ourselves to associate certain places with certain outcomes. There's a reason they built those cathedrals. Pick your place, on purpose.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/pKFOuC8xvfw/the-space-matters.html

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Unreasonable

2011-02-09T18:44:00.001-05:00

It's unreasonable to get out of bed on a snow day, when school has been cancelled, and turn the downtime into six hours of work on an extra credit physics lab.

It's unreasonable to launch a technology product that jumps the development curve by nine months, bringing the next generation out much earlier than more reasonable competitors.

It's unreasonable for a trucking company to answer the phone on the first ring.

It's unreasonable to start a new company without the reassurance venture money can bring.

It's unreasonable to expect a doctor's office to have a pleasant and helpful front desk staff.

It's unreasonable to walk away from a good gig in today's economy, even if you want to do something brave and original.

It's unreasonable for teachers to expect that we can enable disadvantaged inner city kids to do well in high school.

It's unreasonable to treat your colleagues and competitors with respect given the pressure you're under.

It's unreasonable to expect that anyone but a great woman, someone with both drive and advantages, could do anything important in a world where the deck is stacked against ordinary folks.

It's unreasonable to devote years of your life making a product that most people will never appreciate.

Fortunately, the world is filled with unreasonable people. Unfortunately, you need to compete with them.

[Have one to add? Please do. Would love to see it.]

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In and out

2011-02-09T18:39:00.001-05:00

That's one of the most important decisions you'll make today.

How much time and effort should be spent on intake, on inbound messages, on absorbing data...

and how much time and effort should be invested in output, in creating something new.

There used to be a significant limit on available intake. Once you read all the books in the college library on your topic, it was time to start writing.

Now that the availability of opinions, expertise and email is infinite, I think the last part of that sentence is the most important:

Time to start writing.

Or whatever it is you're not doing, merely planning on doing.

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Maybe next year...

2011-02-07T18:41:00.001-05:00

The economy will be going gangbusters

Your knowledge will reach critical mass

Your boss will give you the go ahead (and agree to take the heat if things don't work out)

Your family situation will be stable

The competition will stop innovating

Someone else will drive the carpool, freeing up a few hours a week

There won't be any computer viruses to deal with, and

Your neighbor will return the lawnmower.

Then...

You can ship, you can launch your project, you can make the impact you've been planning on.

Of course, all of these things won't happen. Why not ship anyway?

[While others were hiding last year, new products were launched, new subscriptions were sold and new companies came into being. While they were laying low, websites got new traffic, organizations grew, and contracts were signed. While they were stuck, money was being lent, star employees were hired and trust was built.

Most of all, art got created.

That's okay, though, because it's all going to happen again in 2011. It's not too late, just later than it was.]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/SyVg-Mcyvog/maybe-next-year.html

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Sadly stuck with the status quo

2011-02-07T18:36:00.001-05:00

I had a similar experience when trying to request an insurance quote online. After asking me hundreds of question it told me the cannot issue a quote online and I'll have to call! If this doesn't make you pull your hair then read on Seth's even more horrible experience.

-----

JetBlue is ordinarily smart with their web site, which is why their broken system is particularly useful to take a look at. I'm guessing that at some point, management said, "it's good enough," and moved on to more pressing issues. And then, of course, it stays good enough, frozen in time, ignored, and annoying.

The problem with letting your web forms become annoying is that in terms of time spent interacting with your brand, they're way up on the list. If someone is spending a minute or two or three or four cursing you out from their desk, it's not going to be easily fixed with some clever advertising.

Here's an illustrated guide to things to avoid, JetBlue style:

First interaction wasn't so great. If you even bother to build a "please wait" page, be sure it says something useful, or perhaps interesting, as opposed to confusing. Should I press continue?

Throughout the form, JetBlue frequently asks for dates (of birth, say, or issuance). Everywhere else on their site (and in the country they're based) the format for dates is July 10, 1960. But here, just this one time, the format is 10, July 1960. And you can't just type in the date, which is fast, you need to wrestle with pull down menus, menus too dumb to list all twelve months of the year at once, but instead requiring you to scroll if any date is after April...

Alert readers know that pull down menus with more than thirty total choices are a petty annoyance for me, and this one is particularly vexing. There a more than a hundred and fifty countries here, including a few I have never heard of. The United States, home to 90% of JetBlue's customers, is listed near the bottom, but not at it (hint: if you insist on this sort of error in form design, list the popular choices at the top, at the bottom and in alpha... no penalty for multiple listings). (A far better alternative is the auto-completion guessing trick Google now uses in search).

Worse, if you try to type the country (U...n...i) it takes you to... TUNISIA!

Four passengers; 8 times I had to scroll down all the way, then slowly scroll up and then click...

It gets more annoying. For each passenger, I had to choose, "Travel document type". But of course, there's only one travel document permitted, "Passport" which hardly requires a pull down choice I think. Rule of thumb: when in doubt about a question, don't bother asking.

They also wanted to know the nationality of traveler, which is fine, but then two items later, they wanted to know, "Issuing country." While I'm confident that there are a few travelers who have a nationality in one country and an issuing country in another, my guess is that it would be considered a nice gesture if the form remembered your answer from three seconds ago and automatically entered it for you, no?

After painstakingly filling out the form, I was presented with these two buttons at the bottom of the page... hmmmmm.

Doesn't really matter which one I pressed, though, because lady and the tiger style, I got this:

NOOOOOOOO!

And I had to start the entire form over again, from the beginning, with no fields remembered.

I know, I know, this is a rant. But it's a rant with a point:

Fill in your own forms. Make your executives do it. Watch customers do it. See what your competitors are using. Improve the form. Don't use pull down menus for more than 12 choices unless there really is no choice.

"Good enough" is a hard call, but I think we can agree that most online forms, aren't.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/NIbhnZqbFuQ/tragically-stuck-with-the-status-quo.html

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Measuring busy-ness...

2011-02-07T18:28:00.001-05:00

is far easier than measuring business.

Busy-ness might feel good (like checking your email on Christmas weekend) but business means producing things of actual value. Often, the two are completely unrelated.

What if you spent a day totally unbusy, and instead confronted the fear-filled tasks you've been putting off that will actually produce value once shipped?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/ZKBO4iUz2jc/measuring-busy-ness.html

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Bigger or smaller?

2011-02-07T18:27:00.000-05:00

Every decision we make, every encounter we have... we get a choice.

Are we opening doors or closing them?

It's so tempting to shut people down, to limit the upside, to ostracize, select and demonize. It makes things a lot simpler. Not seeing means you don't have to take action. Not opening means it's easier to announce that you're done. And not raising the bar means you're less likely to fail.

Just about all the things we treasure in our world were built by people who were intent on making things bigger, enabling things to be better, opening doors for us to achieve. The line between a realist and a optimist is hard to draw. And both might be self-fulfilling.

[Please don't confuse this with the issue of focus. Focus involves eliminating options until you have so few moving parts that work actually gets done. You can be focused but still think bigger.]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/DaNL29uQ1bY/bigger-or-smaller.html

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Selling

2011-01-14T17:23:00.001-05:00

"Selling is about a transference of emotion, not a presentation of
facts" - Seth Godin

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What are you working on?

2010-12-20T18:30:00.001-05:00

A short but powerful post from Seth Godin.

----

If someone asks you that, are you excited to tell them the answer?

I hope so. If not, you're wasting away.

No matter what your job is, no matter where you work, there's a way to create a project (on your own, on weekends if necessary), where the excitement is palpable, where something that might make a difference is right around the corner.

Hurry, go do that.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/ifwOQerr0P4/what-are-you-working-on.html

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Prophet (peace be upon him)’s Love – Hajj Lectures

2010-12-19T22:29:00.001-05:00

(Mina, 8th zul-Hijjah 1431, after Asr prayers) Sheikh Zafar gave a speech about how the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to love his people (ummah) and how his companions used to love him (therefore we should love him (s.a.w) too. Here are the highlights:

Obeying the Prophet out of love (itaa’at) is obligatory on every Muslim.
Seyyidna Umar Farooq (r.a.)’s conversation with the Prophet (s.a.w.) about his love for the prophet.
The Meraj; how Seyyidna Abu Bakr confirmed this incident just be knowing that it was the Prophet who says that this had happened. This gave him the title of As-Siddeeq.
The Cave of Thawr (Sor) – How Seyyidna Abu Bakr prepared the cave for the Prophet (s.a.w.) and then protected him from a snake-hole. The story of snake; it was waiting for 600 years to see the Prophet (s.a.w.)
Beautiful conduct of the Prophet (s.a.w.) to his wives.
The Prophet (s.a.w.) going to Al-Baqee cemetery in the middle of the night to supplicate for his ummah.
At the time of his death, Prophet (s.a.w.) told Izraeel (a.s.), the angel of death, to give him the pains of death and spare the people in his ummah.

Why Worship Allah – Hajj Lectures

2010-12-19T22:12:00.001-05:00

(Mina, 8th zul-Hijjah 1431, after Zohr prayers) Sheikh Riad gave a lecture on the topic of why do/should we worship Allah swt. Here are the highlights:

Who is Allah

Reference to Aayet el-Kursi – Never sleeps, nor takes a briefest absence as in shallow sleep.
Gives all bounties to us.
Only worthy of worship due to His immense attributes, Immense bounties, Immense mercy.

Why do we worship

Because it is His right upon us, due to the bounties He has given us. Gratitude, therefore, is the essence of worship.
We need to please Him so that we get Paradise.
And finally, it is the sustenance to our soul. Our hearts find peace in His worship. It is like food for our spirit.

You will be misunderstood

2010-12-16T18:45:00.001-05:00

If you want to drive yourself crazy, read the live twitter comments of an audience after you give a talk, even if it's just to ten people.

You didn't say what they said you said.

You didn't mean what they said you meant.

Or read the comments on just about any blog post or video online. People who saw what you just saw or read what you just read completely misunderstood it. (Or else you did.)

We think direct written and verbal communication is clear and accurate and efficient. It is none of those. If the data rate of an HDMI cable is 340MHz, I'm guessing that the data rate of a speech is far, far lower. Yes, there's a huge amount of information communicated via your affect, your style and your confidence, but no, I don't think humans are so good at getting all the details.

Plan on being misunderstood. Repeat yourself. When in doubt, repeat yourself.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/Q00nnYb7bEc/you-will-be-misunderstood.html

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Christmas 2.0

2010-12-15T14:01:00.003-05:00

Very funny :D
(helps if you know the original story)

Lesley Hazleton - Paradise in Quran

2010-12-14T13:58:00.000-05:00

Especially loved her musing on how Quran is to be 'felt' rather than merely analyzed.

I spread your idea because...

2010-10-28T19:52:00.001-04:00

I'll spread /your/ idea if you give me at least one of the following reasons.

-----

Ideas spread when people choose to spread them. Here are some reasons why:

I spread your idea because it makes me feel generous.
...because I feel smart alerting others to what I discovered.
...because I care about the outcome and want you (the creator of the idea) to succeed.
...because I have no choice. Every time I use your product, I spread the idea (Hotmail, iPad, a tattoo).
...because there's a financial benefit directly to me (Amazon affiliates, mlm).
...because it's funny and laughing alone is no fun.
...because I'm lonely and sharing an idea solves that problem, at least for a while.
...because I'm angry and I want to enlist others in my outrage (or in shutting you down).
...because both my friend and I will benefit if I share the idea (Groupon).
...because you asked me to, and it's hard to say no to you.
...because I can use the idea to introduce people to one another, and making a match is both fun in the short run and community-building.
...because your service works better if all my friends use it (email, Facebook).
...because if everyone knew this idea, I'd be happier.
...because your idea says something that I have trouble saying directly (AA, a blog post, a book).
...because I care about someone and this idea will make them happier or healthier.
...because it's fun to make another teen snicker about prurient stuff we're not supposed to see.
...because the tribe needs to know about this if we're going to avoid an external threat.
...because the tribe needs to know about this if we're going to maintain internal order.
...because it's my job.
I spread your idea because I'm in awe of your art and the only way I can repay you is to share that art with others.

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How media changes politics

2010-10-28T19:45:00.000-04:00

"Mass media is dying, and it appears that mass politicians are endangered as well."

------

If you want to get elected in the US, you need media.

When TV was king, the secret to media was money. If you have money, you can reach the masses. The best way to get money is to make powerful interests happy, so they'll give you money you can use to reach the masses and get re-elected.

Now, though...When attention is scarce and there are many choices, media costs something other than money. It costs interesting. If you are angry or remarkable or an outlier, you're interesting, and your idea can spread. People who are dull and merely aligned with powerful interests have a harder time earning attention, because money isn't sufficient.

Thus, as media moves from TV-driven to attention-driven, we're going to see more outliers, more renegades and more angry people driving agendas and getting elected. I figure this will continue until other voices earn enough permission from the electorate to coordinate getting out the vote, communicating through private channels like email and creating tribes of people to spread the word. (And they need to learn not to waste this permission hassling their supporters for money).

Mass media is dying, and it appears that mass politicians are endangered as well.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/Q08ySC-bIXI/how-media-changes-politics.html

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Change and its constituents (there are two, and both are a problem)

2010-10-28T19:40:00.000-04:00

People who fear they will be hurt by a change speak up immediately, loudly and without regard for the odds or reality.

People who will benefit from a change don't believe it (until it happens), so they sit quietly.

And that's why change in an organization is difficult.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/A2jTx6NY4j8/change-and-its-constituents-there-are-two-and-both-are-a-problem.html

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Two problems with whining

2010-10-28T19:30:00.001-04:00

The first is that it doesn't work. You can whine about the government or your friends or your job or your family, but nothing will happen except that you'll waste time.

Worse... far worse... is that whining is a reverse placebo. When you get good at whining, you start noticing evidence that makes your whining more true. So you amplify that and immerse yourself in it, thus creating more evidence, more stuff worth complaining about.

If you spent the same time prattling on about how optimistic you are, you'd have to work hard to make that true...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/Y6FJd1MbkKc/two-problems-with-whining.html

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Deliberately uninformed, relentlessly so [a rant]

2010-10-28T19:26:00.001-04:00

Excellent piece.

-----

Many people in the United States purchase one or fewer books every year.

Many of those people have seen every single episode of American Idol. There is clearly a correlation here.

Access to knowledge, for the first time in history, is largely unimpeded for the middle class. Without effort or expense, it's possible to become informed if you choose. For less than your cable TV bill, you can buy and read an important book every week. Share the buying with six friends and it costs far less than coffee.

Or you can watch TV.

The thing is, watching TV has its benefits. It excuses you from the responsibility of having an informed opinion about things that matter. It gives you shallow opinions or false 'facts' that you can easily parrot to others that watch what you watch. It rarely unsettles our carefully self-induced calm and isolation from the world.

I got a note from someone the other day, in which she made it clear that she doesn't read non-fiction books or blogs related to her industry. And she seemed proud of this.

I was roped into an argument with someone who was sure that ear candling was a useful treatment. Had he read any medical articles on the topic? No. But he knew. Or said he did.

You see a lot of ostensibly smart people in airports, and it always surprises me how few of them use this downtime to actually become more informed. It's clearly a deliberate act--in our infoculture, it takes work not to expose yourself to interesting ideas, facts, news and points of view. Hal Varian at Google reports that the average person online spends seventy seconds a day reading online news. Ouch.

Not all books are correct or useful. Not all accepted science is correct. The conventional wisdom might just be wrong. But ignoring all of it because the truth is now fashionably situational and in the eye of the beholder is a lame alternative.

I know this rant is nothing new. In fact, people have been complaining about widespread willful ignorance since Brutus or Caesar or whoever invented the salad... the difference now is this: more people than ever are creators. More people than ever go to work to use their minds, not just their hands. And more people than ever have a platform to share their point of view. I think that raises the bar for our understanding of how the world works.

Let's assert for the moment that you get paid to create, manipulate or spread ideas. That you don't get paid to lift bricks or hammer steel. If you're in the idea business, what's going to improve your career, get you a better job, more respect or a happier day? Forgive me for suggesting (to those not curious enough to read this blog and others) that it might be reading blogs, books or even watching TED talks.

As for the deliberately uninformed, we can ignore them or we can reach out to them and hopefully start a pattern of people thinking for themselves...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/TrDLwzMYjyQ/deliberately-uninformed-relentlessly-so.html

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The fear tax

2010-10-19T18:08:00.000-04:00

"We pay the fear tax every time we spend time or money seeking reassurance. We pay it twice when the act of seeking that reassurance actually makes us more anxious, not less."

-------

Here's what happens as a result of security theater at the Orlando airport:

You wait in line at least twenty minutes
There's a scrum of pushing and shoving
The staff are unhappy and not afraid to share it
An unreasonable workload leads to fatigue and errors
People miss their flights

Here's what doesn't happen:

Security is not increased
Peace of mind is not enhanced

In other words, we're paying a significant tax (time and money) and getting nothing in return. In fact, we get worse than nothing. We could call it an anxiety program, instead of a tax. (After all, when you pay a luxury tax, you get some hard-won luxury as part of the deal).

The reason the TSA keeps changing the rules is not because the rules work, but because changing the rules creates more anxiety (for bad guys, they say, but for us too).

Another example: the MBA. A lot of entrepreneurs get an MBA because they are afraid to go out into world without one. They are seeking the reassurance a credential will bring them, even though the cost is huge and there's no data to indicate that they'll be more successful as an entrepreneur as a result.

We pay the fear tax every time we spend time or money seeking reassurance. We pay it twice when the act of seeking that reassurance actually makes us more anxious, not less.

We pay the tax when we cover our butt instead of doing the right thing, and we pay the tax when we take away someone's dignity because we're afraid.

We should quantify the tax. The government should publish how much of our money they're spending to create fear and then spending to (apparently) address fear. Corporations should add to their annual reports how much they spent just-in-case. Once we know how much it costs, we can figure out if it's worth it.

Instead of seeking out gatekeepers and critics and others that demand we get the broom of the wicked witch, perhaps we should just publish our work. The tax is too high.

Instead of forgetting about the wasted anxiety after the fact, perhaps we ought to keep a log of how often we needlessly pay the fear tax.

Instead of over-staffing, over-planning, over-meeting and over-analyzing, perhaps organizations should take lower-cost steps and actually ship.

Think about how much you could get done if you didn't have to pay a tax to amplify or mollify your fear...

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Hacking education

2010-10-19T17:55:00.000-04:00

"You teach kids how to succeed when they successfully foil the educational system."

Arlo Guthrie

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MQM tables land reforms bill in NA

2010-10-12T18:34:00.000-04:00

Finally...

------

ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Farooq Sattar on Tuesday said the ratification of the land reforms bill, submitted in the National Assembly, would deprive many landlords of their sleep.

Earlier today, the MQM had submitted the bill in the National Assembly secretariat.

Farooq Sattar submitted the bill in the presence of 25 National Assembly members and five senators in the NA secretariat.

"The ownership of agriculture land should be limited to 36 acres," the bill stated.

"We feel proud after submitting the land reforms bill as 98 per cent people of the country awaited it," Sattar said.

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Do you need a permit?

2010-10-12T18:28:00.000-04:00

Excellent.

------

Where, precisely, do you go in order to get permission to make a dent in the universe?

The accepted state is to be a cog. The preferred career is to follow the well-worn path, to read the instructions, to do what we're told. It's safer that way. Less responsibility. More people to blame.

When someone comes along and says, "not me, I'm going down a different path," we flinch. We're not organized to encourage and celebrate the unproven striver. It's safer to tear them down (with their best interests at heart, of course). Better, we think, to let them down easy, to encourage them to take a safer path, to be realistic, to hear it from us rather than the marketplace.

Perhaps, years ago, this was good advice. Today, it's clearly not. In fact, it's disrespectful, ill-advised and short sighted. How dare we cheer when a bold changemaker stumbles? Our obligation today isn't to spare the feelings of our peers from future disappointment. It's to establish an expectation that of course they're going to do something that matters.

If you think there's a chance you can make a dent, GO.

Now.

Hurry.

You have my permission. Not that you needed it.

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A galaxy of your own

2010-10-07T18:42:00.000-04:00

Last December, we wrote about our immersive Google Earth environment, Liquid Galaxy: eight 55-inch LCD screens showing Google Earth in a unified, surround view.

Liquid Galaxy at TED 2010

Since then, we've taken it to a lot of conferences, built Liquid Galaxies in Google offices all over the world and even put one in the Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif. We love watching people try it for the first time. Almost everybody wants to see their own house first; but then they start to explore, and we can never guess where they'll choose to go next.

But we just couldn't bring it to enough people—we could only go to so many conferences, and only friends and family of Googlers could try out the Liquid Galaxies in our offices.

So we decided to put the features that make Liquid Galaxy possible into the latest release of Google Earth, and open-source all the supporting work, from our Ubuntu sysadmin scripts to the mechanical design of our custom frames.

Not everyone will have the know-how to network computers together and get view synchronization working, but we tried to make it as easy as possible. If you think you're up to the challenge, check out our Quick Start page. You can also contact our supplier End Point if you'd rather buy than build (or just need some professional assistance). Here's a video they made that shows Liquid Galaxy in action:

Liquid Galaxies don't have to be made from eight big LCD screens; the view sync features scale just fine from two to dozens of screens. And they can run more than just Google Earth; we've had success playing video in sync in our Liquid Galaxies, and even modified a Free Software video game for after-hours fun. We've daydreamed about making panoramic movies, head tracking or even real-time video from distant panoramic cameras. Read more on the Liquid Galaxy page at earth.google.com, and show off your creations in the liquid-galaxy discussion group. We're excited to see what you come up with!

Posted by Jason Holt, Software Engineer, Liquid Galaxy 20% Team

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Generous gifts vs. free samples

2010-10-07T18:25:00.001-04:00

Free isn't always generous. Free can be a legitimate marketing strategy, an ultimately selfish way to increase sales. Once you spread your ideas (and free is the best way to do that), there are all sorts of ways to profit. But don't be confused. Free samples and free ideas and free bonuses are not necessarily generous acts.

A generous gift comes with no transaction foreseen or anticipated. A gift is a gift, not the beginning of a transaction. When you see a Picasso painting at the Met, Picasso doesn't get anything (he's dead). Even his heirs don't get anything. His art is a gift to anyone who sees it.

Giving gifts is a fairly alien endeavor. In most families, even the holidays are more about present exchange than the selfless act of actually giving a gift.

The cool part, the punchline, is that giving a gift for no reason and with no transaction contemplated is actually incredibly powerful. It changes your approach to the market, it changes your relationship with the recipient and yes, it changes you.

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Custom shoes made possible with custom AdWords campaigns

2010-10-05T18:45:00.000-04:00

An example of how people take business ideas from anywhere.

(Cross-posted from the Google Small Business Blog)

Mike Knapp and Michael Fox had always dreamed of founding a start-up. Jodie Fox (Michael's wife) had always loved custom-made shoes. When her friends started asking her to design shoes for them and to bring these handmade shoes back from her travels, she, Mike and Michael saw a business opportunity. The trio founded their online custom shoe design company Shoes of Prey to share the design experience with the rest of the world.

The business first took flight in Australia, where the founders live and their company headquarters. Their first customers were trusted friends, who tested the online creation tool and proudly wore their personalized designs. The ability to create custom shoes quickly went viral. It seemed that with each step they took, the initial testers received questions about where they found their fabulous footwear. Soon strangers began making purchases, and when the website spread to overseas locations, the team began offering different currencies to allow for international sales.

The team had already created an AdWords account to promote Shoes of Prey to online customers in Australia. As they expanded internationally, they created new AdWords campaigns targeted at English-speaking countries with currencies they could process. They used AdWords location-targeting to show ads in new locations: Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. Michael says, "Despite being based in Australia, it took only a matter of days for our first orders to start coming in from the other side of the world. It was exciting to see!"

Currently, about 10 percent of Shoes of Prey's shoe sales come from AdWords customers—and about 40 percent of those sales are from international buyers. One of the main reasons they've been successful in reaching international audiences is the ease with which they can edit ad texts for each location. "Gift certificates have been really popular on our site," Michael says. "So we use AdWords to promote our gift certificates. Key events for us are Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and Christmas."

Michael then uses Google Insights for Search to identify each country's peak search traffic dates for these occasions. "We time specific AdWords campaigns to target each of these events. Mother's Day is on a different day in different countries, so AdWords lets us run ads at different times of the year for the various countries, and edit the ads so they speak to users in those countries. For example, we'll mention the price of our shoes in euro in Ireland and in dollars in the U.S."

After only a year of operation, the founders have hired three new employees and have formed partnerships with local firms in Japan and Russia to localize their offering in those markets. "Early on in the life of our business, AdWords showed us the potential our business has for growth outside Australia, so we now offer Japanese and Russian versions of our website, complete with local marketing and customer support in those markets," says Michael.

With AdWords, Michael, Jodie and Mike have been able to share their passion for custom shoes with international customers who share their love for customization. Their next step is to inspire all shoe lovers to design their own footwear. Michael tells us: "We're starting to experiment with the Google Display Network to help us find those first customers while they're browsing the web." And they'll continue to use AdWords location targeting and ad text customization to reach new international customers who might not know just how much fun designing shoes can be!

Posted by Maren Bean, Sr. Associate, Ads Communications

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The business of software

2010-10-05T18:37:00.000-04:00

Quite smart...

-----

Inspired by a talk I gave yesterday at the BOS conference. This is long, feel free to skip!

My first real job was leading a team that created five massive computer games for the Commodore 64. The games were so big they needed four floppy disks each, and the project was so complex (and the hardware systems so sketchy) that on more than one occasion, smoke started coming out of the drives.

Success was a product that didn't crash, start a fire or lead to a nervous breakdown.

Writing software used to be hard, sort of like erecting a building used to be hundreds of years ago. When you set out to build an audacious building, there were real doubts about whether you might succeed. It was considered a marvel if your building was a little taller and didn't fall down. Now, of course, the hard part of real estate development has nothing to do with whether or not your building is going to collapse.

The same thing is true of software. It's a given that a professionally run project will create something that runs. Good (not great) software is a matter of will, mostly.

The question used to be: Does it run? That was enough, because software that worked was scarce.

Now, the amount of high utility freeware and useful free websites is soaring. Clearly, just writing a piece of software no longer makes it a business.

So if it's not about avoiding fatal bugs, what's the business of software?

At its heart, you need to imagine (and then execute) a business that just happens to involve a piece of software, because it's become clear that software alone isn't the point. There isn't a supply issue--it's about demand. The business of software is now marketing (which includes design).

The internet has transformed the software industry in two vaguely related ways:

1. It makes it far more efficient to communicate with people who might buy your software and,
2. It enables software's most powerful function: communication between users

Let's take them one at a time:

COMMUNICATE TO USERS: As we've seen in just about every industry, marketing involves effectively communicating a story about benefits to (and among) the people who will appreciate them. For software entrepreneurs, this means identifying a group of people who need the utility of what you can offer them and who are willing to give you permission to educate them about why they should buy. Without either element, the software is dead.

Over time, this permission becomes the core asset of the company. Selling upgrades, for example, is a great revenue path for software companies because of the ease of alerting current users about the upgrade.

I think niche opportunities for software are largely unexploited. There are countless tribes of people who would eagerly try and ultimately benefit from software optimized for their needs. A simple example: Firehouse.com is a website for firefighters. They have tens of thousands of members and hundreds of contributing writers and bloggers. Is it possible to imagine software that would help a fireman during a typical day? If you could, here's a group ready to listen.

The amplification of tens of thousands of tribal niches online creates a significant opportunity for specialized software worth paying for.

So, the questions I'd ask:

Who can I reach?
Is the product so remarkable that they will talk about my product with their peers?
Can I earn and maintain permission to continue the conversation?
Once they learn about the utility offered, will they pay for it?

ENABLE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN USERS: This is the holy grail of software, and has been since multi-player games, email, ICQ and the web revolutionized the way we thought about computers.

It's hard to imagine, but twenty years ago, this is not what we thought about when we turned on a computer or went to the store to buy software. (Yes, the store--that's where you bought software). The purpose of software was to interact with a device, not another person. Old software had no network effect.

The network effect is the increased utility of a device that enables communication. One fax machine is useless, two are good, a thousand are a vital tool. One user of software is lonely, a million is a sea change in the way we communicate. Software enjoys a central role in the network effect--if you can improve productivity or satisfaction by connecting people, then people will selfishly help you do your marketing.

When building a software business that uses the network effect, I'd ask:

Does the connection this enables create demonstrable value?
Is there an easy and obvious way for someone who benefits to recruit someone else to join in?
Is it open enough to be easy to use but closed enough to avoid becoming a zero-cost commodity?

Worth taking a minute to think about that last question. eBay, for example, is a business because instead of developing an open protocol that would have enabled anyone to run an auction anywhere on any platform, Pierre Omidyar built a piece of software that was easy to use and open to changes in content--but required all the users to use his software. Compare that to the many pieces of software middleware that depend on Twitter content to work. Since the feed from Twitter is software independent, it's very difficult for a middleman to earn the privilege of charging much at all. The user can easily switch to a different middleman with little or no hassle.

What you're looking for in a connected world is a piece of software that sits in the middle of a sphere, enabling the user to make valuable connections, to build utility in a way that they couldn't without you. That's worth paying for and not worth switching out of.

LAST THING: Paying for it

In a competitive market where the marginal cost of an item is zero, the price will move to and eventually reach zero. If it doesn't cost you (or your competitors) anything to add one more user, then in a truly competitive market, there will be a race to add users, even if the next one doesn't add any revenue.

The goal, then, is to create a dynamic where the market isn't competitive. Back to the eBay example: copying the functionality of their software is now easy and cheap. You could probably build something way better, in fact. But switching is hugely expensive for the user, because all the buyers and all the sellers are there, not with you. It's not a competitive marketplace.

The other condition that's necessary, though, is that users have to believe that payment is an option. The web has trained the vast majority that interactions online should be free. That makes the act of selling software, particularly to people who haven't used it yet, really difficult.

There are two ways around this:
1. Free samples. Many software companies (37signals being an obvious one) have discovered the drug dealer model, in which the software is free for a month, connections are built, utility is created and then it begins to cost money.

2. Move to a platform where commerce is expected. They sell a lot of candy at bookstore cash registers, because wallets are already out and people are feeling in the mood for a treat to leaven their purchase of some intellectual tome. The app store for the iPad is like that. The expectation is that this software is going to cost money. It's far easier to sell a serious app for the iPad than it is on the web, because the platform is organized around commerce.

A long post, sure, but I wanted to help you realize that just because you can code something that doesn't mean it's a good idea. The issues of permission, of networks, of scarcity and of the desire to pay are inherent in the business part of the business of software. I think we're at the very beginning of the arc of software as business, and I can't wait to see what you come up with next.

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Demonstrating strength

2010-10-05T18:26:00.001-04:00

Apologize

Defer to others

Avoid shortcuts

Tell the truth

Offer kindness

Seek alliances

Volunteer to take the short straw

Choose the long-term, sacrificing the short

Demonstrate respect to all, not just the obviously strong

Share credit and be public in your gratitude

Risking the appearance of weakness takes strength. And the market knows it.

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The Flintstones turn 50 on my birthday

2010-10-01T09:37:00.001-04:00

September 30th is also birthdate of my favorite cartoon: The Flintstones.

And this year, it turned 50!

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369967,00.asp

Happy Birthday Fred, Wilma, Pebbles.... !! :)

Show me the honey

2010-09-23T18:38:00.000-04:00

Wouldn't those bees bite? I think they don't unless disturbed. A good Urban Farming idea for someone to venture.

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Since we installed four beehives on campus this spring, the area around the hives has been, well, a hive of activity. Many Googlers took the beekeeping plunge, donning bee suits and diving into regular beekeeping activities such as regular checks for diseases and parasites. Today, we have more than 80 employees signed up to care for the bees. We're happy to report that the bees have prospered at Google (must be all the free food) and the hives have grown from their original one-story "campus," the Hiveplex, to five stories.

Over the past few weeks, there's been a ton of anticipation on campus as the hives filled with honey and harvest time drew closer. Each beekeeping team is assigned to one of the four colored hives, and some teams were spotted peeking into other hives to see which was ahead in terms of honey production.

The actual harvest, last week, was a fun-filled event with both traditional and modern methods of honey extraction. Under the helpful guidance of Bill Tomaszewski of Marin Bee Company, Googlers took turns uncapping the honey (removing the protective wax that bees use to cover a cell once it's filled with honey), hand-cranking the honey extraction machinery to spin the honey out of the honey comb and pouring the honey through filters to remove the bits of wax and other particles that came from the hive.

The end result was beyond any of our expectations—approximately 405lbs of raw, natural honey. (We were so eager to taste the harvest that we neglected to use the scales that had been set up!) We also determined it was more or less a dead heat for which hive was the most productive. Even with such a harvest, we made sure we left enough honey behind to allow the bees to get comfortably through the winter months.

The honey is being put to good use—everyone who participated in the extraction got a jar to take home, while the rest of the honey will be used in the cafes and for cooking classes organized by Marc Rasic, an executive chef at Google and one of the people behind the beekeeping initiative.

We're also relieved that none of the hives have succumbed to Colony Collapse Disorder, but we'll be keeping a close eye on them over the winter months to ensure that they stay happy, healthy and ready to start work again in the spring. We're already looking forward to next year!

Posted by Rob Peterson, Manager, Software Engineering

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Our Clinton Global Initiative commitment to Pakistan

2010-09-23T18:32:00.000-04:00

At the opening ceremony of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) this morning, President Clinton discussed the urgent need to help the people of Pakistan recover from widespread floods which have affected more people than the 2004 South Asia tsunami, the 2005 South Asia earthquake, and the Haiti earthquake combined. The floods have put one-fifth of the land underwater, impacting more than 20 million people, damaging or destroying 1.9 million homes, putting 3.5 million children at risk of waterborne diseases, and wiping out livestock and crops.

Unfortunately the global response has been anemic. While U.S. corporations, foundations and individuals responded admirably to the earthquake in Haiti by donating $900 million in the first five weeks after the disaster, that same group donated $25 million to Pakistan in the first five week weeks after the floods hit. In an interview with citizens hosted by YouTube, President Clinton called for a dramatically increased global response.

As part of our CGI commitment this year, Google is providing $1 million in charitable grants, as well as technology support to help the people of Pakistan recover from these floods. Roughly one-third of our grants support organizations providing clean water, shelter, medical care and other immediate needs, while two-thirds will be focused on longer-term rebuilding efforts. Partners for the first round of support include: A.S. Edhi International Foundation, Architecture for Humanity, CARE, The Citizens Foundation, Naya Jeevan for Kids, Real Medicine Foundation, SIUT North America, Sungi Development Foundation and UM Healthcare Trust.

Amazing work is already being done by these organizations. SIUT, for example, has already established seven medical relief camps and three field hospitals in different parts of the country. Their doctors and paramedics have treated more than 100,000 people, many of whom are suffering from gastroenteritis, malaria and skin diseases.

In remarks during the opening plenary today, Eric Schmidt noted the importance of bringing 21st century technology solutions to disaster relief work. In collaboration with numerous NGOs, for example, Google developed Person Finder, an application that allows individuals to check on the status of friends and loved ones affected by a disaster, a few days after the Haiti earthquake. We developed Resource Finder, an experimental tool that aggregates information on health facilities to help first responders, and shared our MapMaker data with the U.N. We've published sites linked from our homepage to provide updated maps and imagery, videos, news and ways to donate in the wake of recent natural disasters in Haiti, Chile, China, Pakistan and the Gulf oil spill.

We're excited to be at CGI this week to learn about innovative ways to use technology to assist with health, development and disaster response. We encourage non-profits to visit our newly updated Google for NonProfits site to learn how Google's free tools can help expand the impact of each organization.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Advocacy Director, Google.org

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"I need you to see things my way"

2010-09-23T18:21:00.000-04:00

I agree.

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And that's the frustration of the marketer or the artist who hasn't figured out how to navigate critics and the marketplace.

If you need the validation and acceptance and patronage of everyone you meet, you'll get stuck, and soon. Everyone isn't going to get it. Everyone isn't even going to get you, never mind what you sell.

Experienced marketers and artists and those that make change understand that the new is not for everyone. In fact, it's not even for most people. Pass them by. They can catch up later.

It's not a referendum, and you don't need a unanimous vote of acclamation. No, you merely need enough to stay in business, to keep moving, to make a dent. And then your idea can spread.

If the kids in the back of the bus/audience/store don't get it (or don't get you) it's their loss. Focus on those that want to celebrate the work you do instead.

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Rehearsing is for cowards

2010-09-20T18:13:00.001-04:00

Interesting, and perhaps true. :)

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Jackson Browne gave us that advice. He would rather have you explore.

Exploring helps you figure out what you can do the next time you present or perform or interact. Rehearsing, on the hand, means figuring out exactly what you're going to do so you can protect against the downside, the unpredictable and the embarrassing.

I'm not dismissing study, learning, experimenting or getting great at what you do. In fact, I'm arguing in favor of this sort of hard work. No, I'm talking about the repetition of doing it before you do it, again and again. Just drilling it in so you can regurgitate later. Better, I think,as they say, "...let's do it live."

A well-rehearsed performance will go without a hitch. An explorer seeks the hitches, because hitches are the fissures and chasms that help us leap forward.

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A Google Health update

2010-09-16T18:45:00.000-04:00

Google Health launched a bit over two years ago, and since then we've been listening to our users, analyzing feedback and conducting research. We've learned a lot from you! You've confirmed that having a central place online to store and share medical data with whomever you want is important and a step in the right direction. And we've added a number of features based on what you've asked for so far. But you've also told us that it's not enough; that you're also looking for tools that will help you act on all your health and wellness concerns. We've heard you ask for easier data tracking, more personalization and the ability to set and track progress toward your health goals. We've listened, and today we're announcing a new design and new features for Google Health.

So what's new? Well, we've developed an easier-to-use dashboard that brings together even more of your health and wellness information in one place and makes it easier for you to organize and act on that information. We've also heard from you that focusing on wellness, and wellness goals, is a big part of the solution, and that it's important to record your daily experience and set goals.

So our new re-design better organizes your medical information, while creating a more welcoming place to set goals for yourself and check in daily on your progress. For example, you might want to set a goal around walking more each day or to lower your cholesterol over time. With our new design, you can easily monitor your path to success with a visual graph that shows your progress towards your personalized goal. You can even create custom trackers for other things that you want to monitor like daily sleep, exercise, pregnancy or even how many cups of coffee you drink a day.

We've also integrated with several new partners to make it easier for you to collect the data you need to track your progress, including Fitbit, maker of a wearable device that captures health and wellness data such as steps taken, calories burned and sleep quality; and CardioTrainer, one of the top mobile apps for tracking fitness activity and weight loss. In the two weeks since CardioTrainer's integration went live, CardioTrainer developer WorkSmart Labs reports that users have already uploaded more than 150,000 workouts to Google Health, where they can more easily view, track and set goals around their workouts and monitor them along with other health and wellness information.

Besides tracking progress toward your health goals, our new design also gives you the ability to take notes or keep a journal on your progress for each health condition or medication you're taking. The new design also delivers information that is more personalized to your particular set of medical conditions or specific medications. You can access improved content links for each medical condition, medication or lab result you have in your Google Health profile. And we've made the Google Health profile easier to read and customize, with the ability to hide past items or sections that are outdated or no longer relevant. All of this helps you keep your dashboard up-to-date with current, relevant information, while still letting you maintain a complete health history.

In addition to redesigning the product and forming new partnerships with device and mobile apps developers, we've continued to expand our more traditional integrations with hospitals and other healthcare data providers. Three recent highlights include Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Sharp HealthCare.

With this update, we've made Google Health an even more powerful tool for organizing all your health information online, and also for achieving your health and wellness goals. We think you'll find that organized, measurable and engaging information helps make it easier to achieve better health and wellness.

Posted by Aaron Brown, Senior Product Manager

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Responding to the floods in Pakistan

2010-09-16T18:41:00.000-04:00

Nice.

--------

Pakistan has been struck by the worst flooding in its recorded history. The latest estimate of the number of people affected by the flood exceeds 14 million—more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Critical infrastructure has been damaged over the last two weeks and clean water is in short supply. As monsoons approach, flooding is expected to worsen.

Our Crisis Response team has been working to use existing tools and build new ones to help the relief efforts. We just launched a page in Urdu and English where you can find information, resources and donation opportunities to help the victims of the floods. We're also donating $250,000 to international and local NGOs to immediately aid in relief efforts. Although we've been able to provide satellite imagery for disasters in the past, cloud cover in Pakistan has prevented us from compiling useful imagery so far. We hope to share imagery as soon as possible.

We've already learned a lot about building useful tools from our previous efforts to help with disaster relief. Following the earthquake in Haiti, a small team of Googlers visited relief aid workers in Haiti to understand how we could further help. In observing and speaking with the relief aid workers, we learned that they needed up-to-date information about available resources (such as which field hospitals have X-ray machines or orthopedic surgeons), their location and contact information. Coordination between various health and relief facilities that spring up in a disaster zone can be challenging.

Based on what we learned in Haiti, we've been working to develop Resource Finder, a new tool to help disseminate updated information about which services various health facilities offer. It provides a map with editable records to help relief workers maintain up-to-date information on the services, doctors, equipment and beds available at neighboring health facilities so that they can efficiently arrange patient transfers. We normally wouldn't release the tool so quickly, but decided to make an early release version of Resource Finder available for supporting relief efforts in Pakistan. This is the first time the tool is being launched during a disaster situation so we'll be working closely with NGOs to understand its usefulness and will iterate accordingly.

We've also launched Person Finder in both Urdu and English for this disaster. This application allows individuals to check and post on the status of relatives or friends affected by a disaster. Fortunately, we've heard that missing persons has not been as concerning an issue as it was during the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, but we'll leave the application up regardless.

Responding to a disaster of this scale is a daunting task, but we can all do something to help. We will try to do our part and continue working with the many incredible NGOs to develop tools that help them work more effectively.

Posted by Ka-Ping Yee, Software Engineer, Google.org

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/Of0YDxVUfZA/responding-to-floods-in-pakistan.html

Sent with MobileRSS for iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Ramadan Photography

2010-09-14T13:31:00.001-04:00

Like every year, Boston Globe hosted great Ramadan pictures:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/ramadan_2010.html

Resilience and the incredible power of slow change

2010-08-25T18:47:00.000-04:00

The breaking news mindset isn't just annoying, it may be distracting you from what really matters.

-------

Most existing systems (organizations, cities, careers, governments) are resilient to external shocks. If they weren't, they wouldn't still be here. Earthquakes, edicts and emergencies come and they go, but the systems remain.

And yet, it's the emergencies we pay attention to.

No single event demolished the music business. It was a series of slow changes over the course of two decades, all the way back to the CD.

Smoking killed far more people than terrorists ever did. It's just not as dramatic.

No single technology destroyed the business model for newspapers. Sure, Craigslist hastened their demise, but the writing has been on the wall for a decade or more.

Your career won't be made or broken on the back of one interview, one meeting, one sales call. Sure, it might help (or hurt), but the sudden impact of one event isn't sufficient to change everything forever.

The slow changes in the media landscape are accelerating and virtually every pre-digital system is in danger. The slow changes in the marketing landscape are in their second decade and these changes will have their effects on every business and cause as well.

Cultural shifts create long terms evolutionary changes. Cultural shifts, changes in habits, technologies that slowly obsolete a product or a system are the ones that change our lives. Watch for shifts in systems and processes and expectations. That's what makes change, not big events.

Don't worry about what happened yesterday (or five minutes ago). Focus on what happened ten years ago and think about what you can do that will make a huge impact in six months. The breaking news mindset isn't just annoying, it may be distracting you from what really matters. As the world gets faster, it turns out that the glacial changes of years and decades are become more important, not less.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/08/resilience-and-the-incredible-power-of-slow-change.html

Sent from my iPhone

All Electronic Stores in Canada

2010-08-11T15:08:00.001-04:00

A good resource to have in bookmarks: http://www.electronicstores.ca/

The problem with unlimited

2010-07-27T18:34:00.000-04:00

Interesting perspective.

-------

If you work out on a weight machine that has a limit--where you have to push the bar until it stops--you're far more likely to to hit that limit than if you had left it to your own initiative to figure out how far is far enough.

People enjoy going to the max (or in the case of Spinal Tap, a little farther than max, to 11). But if there is no max, no limit, it's much easier to satisfy yourself and declare that you've done enough.

If you want your best users to do more, one way to do it is to announce the most they can do. While this may dissuade a few people from pushing ever farther, it will in fact motivate a large number of people to up their game.

"The maximum number of times a week you can dine here is three."

"The maximum bonus paid is $100k."

"The maximum number of tweets per day is 30."

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/noJbSK2rpkw/the-problem-with-unlimited.html

Sent from my iPhone

Good Guide - iPhone App

2010-07-09T15:46:00.000-04:00

http://www.goodguide.com/about/mobile

Check detailed info of products in your phone by looking up their barcode.

How to Fix Anything

2010-07-09T15:45:00.001-04:00

Excellent social project:

http://www.ifixit.com/

Nice Photography Links

2010-07-09T15:43:00.001-04:00

To inspire and teach about photography.

http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/100-spellbinding-silhouette-shots-to-inspire-amaze/
http://digital-photography-school.com/

Hope and the magic lottery - Seth Godin

2010-07-07T16:22:00.001-04:00

Entrepreneurial hope is essential. It gets us over the hump and through the dip. There's a variety of this hope, though, that's far more damaging than helpful.

This is the hope of the magic lottery ticket.

A fledgling entrepreneur ambushes a venture capitalist who just appeared on a panel. "Excuse me," she says, then launches into a two, then six and eventually twenty minute pitch that will never (sorry, never) lead to the VC saying, "Great, here's a check for $2 million on your terms."

Or the fledgling author, the one who has been turned down by ten agents and then copies his manuscript and fedexes it to twenty large publishing houses--what is he hoping for, exactly? Perhaps he's hoping to win the magic lottery, to be the one piece of slush chosen out of a million (literally a million!) that goes on to be published and revered.

You deserve better than the dashed hopes of a magic lottery.

There's a hard work alternative to the magic lottery, one in which you can incrementally lay the groundwork and integrate into the system you say you want to work with. And yet instead of doing that work, our instinct is to demonize the person that wants to take away our ticket, to confuse the math of the situation (there are very few glass slippers available) with someone trying to slam the door in your faith/face.

You can either work yourself to point where you don't need the transom, or you can play a different game altogether, but throwing your stuff over the transom isn't worthy of the work you've done so far.

Starbucks didn't become Starbucks by getting discovered by Oprah Winfrey or being blessed by Warren Buffet when they only had a few stores. No, they plugged along. They raised bits of money here and there, flirted with disaster, added one store and then another, tweaked and measured and improved and repeated. Day by day, they dripped their way to success. No magic lottery.

What chance is there that Mark Cuban or Carlos Slim is going to agree to be your mentor, to open all doors and give you a shortcut to the top? Better, I think, to avoid wasting a moment of your time hoping for a fairy godmother. You're in a hurry and this is a dead end.

When someone encourages you to avoid the magic lottery, they're not criticizing your idea nor are they trying to shatter your faith or take away your hope. Instead, they're pointing out that shortcuts are rarely dependable (or particularly short) and that instead, perhaps, you should follow the longer, more deliberate, less magical path if you truly want to succeed.

If your business or your music or your art or your project is truly worth your energy and your passion, then don't sell it short by putting its future into a lottery ticket.

Here's another way to think about it: delight the audience you already have, amaze the customers you can already reach, dazzle the small investors who already trust you enough to listen to you. Take the permission you have and work your way up. Leaps look good in the movies, but in fact, success is mostly about finding a path and walking it one step at a time.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/_RB1PpF5yeY/hope-and-the-magic-lottery.html

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Hope and the magic lottery - Seth Godin

2010-07-02T18:43:00.000-04:00

Entrepreneurial hope is essential. It gets us over the hump and through the dip. There's a variety of this hope, though, that's far more damaging than helpful.

This is the hope of the magic lottery ticket.

You deserve better than the dashed hopes of a magic lottery.

If your business or your music or your art or your project is truly worth your energy and your passion, then don't sell it short by putting its future into a lottery ticket.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/_RB1PpF5yeY/hope-and-the-magic-lottery.html

Sent from my iPhone

Goodbye to the office - Seth Godin

2010-07-02T18:34:00.000-04:00

Factories used to be arranged in a straight line. That's because there was one steam engine, and it turned a shaft. All the machines were set up along the shaft, with a belt giving each of them power. The office needed to be right next to this building, so management could monitor what was going on.

150 years later, why go to work in an office/plant/factory?

That's where the machines are.
That's where the items I need to work on are.
The boss needs to keep tabs on my productivity.
There are important meetings to go to.
It's a source of energy.
The people I collaborate with all day are there.
I need someplace to go.

But...

If you have a laptop, you probably have the machine already, in your house.
If you do work with a keyboard and a mouse, the items you need to work on are on your laptop, not in the office.
The boss can easily keep tabs on productivity digitally.
How many meetings are important? If you didn't go, what would happen?
You can get energy from people other than those in the same company.
Of the 100 people in your office, how many do you collaborate with daily?
So go someplace. But it doesn't have to be to your office.

If we were starting this whole office thing today, it's inconceivable we'd pay the rent/time/commuting cost to get what we get. I think in ten years the TV show 'the Office' will be seen as a quaint antique.

When you need to have a meeting, have a meeting. When you need to collaborate, collaborate. The rest of the time, do the work, wherever you like.

The gain in speed, productivity and happiness is massive. What's missing is #7... someplace to go. Once someone figures that part out, the office is dead.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/35hvf8nNT0g/goodbye-to-the-office.html

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Treatment of Conquered - Quotes from "The Prince"

2010-06-30T09:13:00.000-04:00

Reading The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli using http://itunes.com/apps/Stanza:

"Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot;"

Sent from my iPhone

Real Management

2010-06-29T15:23:00.001-04:00

"The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work."

- Agha Hasan Abedi

On the Toastmasters Int'l website, I found this quote of Agha Hasan Abedi, the founder and head of BCCI before it was mugged by international powers.

Amir Khan: Fighting stereotypes

2010-06-23T15:24:00.001-04:00

Featured on CNN, this is an inspiring story.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/06/15/amir.khan.revealed/index.html
(CNN) -- Amir Khan is a rare thing in sport: A world champion boxer who still lives with his parents and a prominent Muslim who is not afraid to address the image of Islam today.

Tariq Ramadan on Secularism, Islam, and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West

2010-04-14T14:27:00.001-04:00

First lecture of Dr. Tariq Ramadan after lifting of a ban on him for entering usa: http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4888/prmID/1873
MP3 available to download.

Tea-Coffee shops

2010-03-22T15:14:00.001-04:00

http://www.express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1100888068&Issue=NP_KHI&Date=20100321

I have long believed that people who think of starting a small business should think of tea/coffee-houses and chocolateries or ice-creameries instead of restaurants and kiryana/general-stores.
Coffee shops are much simpler to start and maintain, and add much more value to culture (as also stated in Javed Ch's column).

Oh Canada!

2010-02-19T16:03:00.002-05:00

By Boonaa Mohammed :)

Reader's Block

2010-02-18T10:19:00.000-05:00

Last week I wrote about Writer's Block. A friend left me a comment in Buzz (newest addition to Google's family) and suggested that I write about what he called "Reader's Block". Well, my friend, here you go.

Reader's Block, as he defined for me, is when you have so much to read that you don't know where to start. With a plethora of emails in your personal and work inbox, articles you have bookmarked to read later, books in your to-read list that you are so guilty about, and not to mention friends' facebook updates, blogs (with an exception of this one ;) ... and the list goes on, you don't know what to read first, if at all.

For a Toastmaster, at least, I know how to break this block. Their top priority should the draft of the upcoming speech! After that, read material that pertains to the speech, like what would give stories about the speech subject.

For a non-toastie, I can suggest that you read what would help you in the forthcoming activity of work/life. For example, if you are going to meet a group friends, get a quick glimpse of their facebook (or Buzz) updates. If you have a business meeting coming up, read, by all means, your office emails, and then any other document necessary.

More tips on breaking the Reader's Block in later posts.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Conspiracy Facts

2010-02-18T09:48:00.002-05:00

Solution to the Justice Dilemma - Javed Chaudhury

2010-02-16T12:09:00.002-05:00

I will post here a series of columns from Javed Chaudhury that he writes for Express News.

Here is the first one (in Urdu): Insaf ke Almiay ka Hul (Solution to the Justice Dilemma)

Writer's Block

2010-02-03T18:22:00.000-05:00

Only second post and I m facing this daunting condition all too well known to writers: Writer's Block. So I decided to give Writer's Block a blow in the face and write /about/ it.

Writer's Block is simply(!) when a writer sits down to write a piece but ideas are blocked out and the blank computer screen stares at them.

Soon after I joined Toastmasters, I encountred this situation when I had to write my first Moment of Reflection. Though it's a small speech, a good idea is nevertheless required to have a good form.

And for CC projects... !! You not only have to come up with an initial idea but also to have enough examples and facts to build your speech.

Through time, however, I developed some tricks to avoid this monster in every writer's world. Here is one of those tricks: Start writing whatever! It doesn't matter if it's about a completely bizzarre subject, or even just random words. Once you have your fingers moving, ideas will start flowing in. Before too late you will have a crystal clear idea that you will love to write about...

... and this blog post is a living proof that this trick works! ;-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Rambunctious

2010-01-28T15:14:00.001-05:00

Rambunctious - learned this interesting new word today:

boisterous: noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline; "a boisterous crowd"; "a social gathering that became rambunctious and out of hand"; "a ...
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Energetic and difficult to control
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rambunctious

(definitions from google)

The Journey Begins

2010-01-28T13:47:00.003-05:00

Some people are born with public speaking skills, perhaps. I was not one of them. My journey with Toastmasters began when a senior member of community introduced a club where people meet every week to practice speaking. He persuaded me to give it a try. I attended the first meeting and was impressed with not only the speaking power of people, but also their friendliness.

Despite all these benefits, I still was not sure if I should join. I had serious doubts about my public speaking ability and my confidence for standing in front of an audience was down low. Although I did not join right then (I wish I had), something was pulling me to this club. Finally after graduation, I came back to attend a meeting as a guest with a firm resolve to join.

My journey with Toastmasters has only continued since then. From a timid speaker to the founder of a new club, I have learned a great deal not only in the vast field of public speaking, but also in leadership and interpersonal skills, and I still have a long way to go.

In this blog, I will share with you my moments in the club, tips and tricks I learned from fellow toastmasters, and advice on leadership. I hope to learn from this blog equally, if not more, as you, the readers.

My journey with Toastmasters begins from here...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Senegal offers land to Haitians [BBC report]

2010-01-19T10:35:00.001-05:00

What a great gesture of humanity and brotherhood!
What a contrast to states that rob land from settled people!

---------

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8463921.stm

Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians could "return to their origin"

Senegal's president says he will offer free land and "repatriation" to people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

President Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal.
"The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin," said Mr Wade's spokesman, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye.
Tuesday's earthquake killed tens of thousands and left many more homeless.
Buildings have been reduced to rubble, the distribution of aid is slow, and people have been flooding out of the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince.
"Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land - even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come," Mr Bemba Ndiaye said.
"If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region."
The spokesman emphasised that if a region was given, it would be in a fertile part of the country rather than in its parched deserts, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Letting Go

2010-01-07T11:54:00.001-05:00

If you let go a little, you have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you have a lot of peace. If you let go everything, you have complete peace.

- A. Shah

90% of Life is Reactions

2009-12-17T15:19:00.001-05:00

Life is 10% of what happens to me, and 90% of how I react to it.

- John Maxwell

Playful Life

2009-12-15T11:42:00.001-05:00

Life is a monkey that swings poop at you.

- Lisa Schwartman on CBC-DNTO

Minds are like Parachutes

2009-12-04T14:15:00.002-05:00

Minds are like parachutes. They need to be opened to work.

- Anonymous (heard in CBC-Spark)

Eid al-Adha and the Hajj, 2009

2009-12-01T11:02:00.002-05:00

Beautiful collection of photographs by Alan Taylor

"Today, November 27th, marks the beginning of 2009's Eid al-Adha, the Muslim "Festival of Sacrifice", commemorating the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son to God. Muslims around the world will celebrate by slaughtering animals to commemorate God's gift of a ram to substitute for Abraham's son, distributing the meat amongst family, friends and the poor. Eid al-Adha also takes place immediately after the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a pillar of Islamic Faith. Some 2.5 million Muslim faithful from all over the world descended on Mecca this year, many encountering an unusual occurance: heavy flooding due to recent torrential rains. Collected below are photographs from this year's Hajj and observance of Eid al-Adha."
________________________________________________

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/eid_aladha_and_the_hajj_2009.html?s_campaign=8315

A man is silhouetted along with his camels after they were brought to an animal market to be sold in Lahore, Pakistan on November 24, 2009, ahead of the Islamic Eid al-Adha celebrations. (REUTERS/Mohsin Raza)

Unhappy Moments

2009-12-01T01:30:00.002-05:00

‎Dwelling on any unhappy moment in life is like channel surfing through a thousand possible TV shows, selecting the one that troubles you the most, and then blaming your TV set for the pain you're feeling.

- ‎‎‎‎‎Ahmad Shawqi El-Behery‎‎‎‎‎

Eid al-Adha Mubarak

2009-11-27T14:15:00.003-05:00

The festival of Muslims, Eid al-Adha, is marked by slaughtering an animal, following the footsteps of prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) peace-be-upon-him.

The words we commonly use for this slaughtering of animals are Qurbani and Sacrifice. Lets take a deeper look at these words and see if we can get some lessons from this ritual.

The word Qurbani is from the root Q-R-B in Arabic meaning 'to come near'. Hence 'qurb' means nearness, and word 'qurban' following the the same pattern as in Rahman, means 'to come very close'. Qurbani, therefore, is a way to come very close to someone.

The word Sacrifice is from the word sacré in French meaning 'sacred'. Hence to 'sacrify', following the same pattern as of verb solidify, means 'to make sacred'. Sacrifice, therefore, is a way to make something sacred.

Both words in non-literal sense mean to give up something to attain something of a higher value. The two words of two very different laguages point to the same direction: you have to be ready to give up things you are attached to (material, ideas) in order to attain closeness to someone dearer and to make your bond sacred. This idea is amplified (and ritualized) in Creator-creation relationship, but holds equally true in every person-person and person-ideal relationship.

iota

2009-11-24T09:58:00.001-05:00

For those who think "Life is as complex as sqrt(-1)". You can simplify your life by replacing sqrt(-1) with 'i' (iota).

- Muhammad Awais Humayun (friend)

Gumption

2009-11-19T15:29:00.002-05:00

Learned this excellent new word today: Gumption

Definitions of gumption on the Web: (copied from Google search)

common sense: sound practical judgment
backbone: fortitude and determination; "he didn't have the guts to try it"
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Courage, also known as bravery, will, intrepidity, and fortitude, is the ability to confront fear, pain, risk/danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumption
Energy of mind and body, enthusiasm; Boldness of enterprise; initiative or aggressiveness, guts; spunk; initiative
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gumption

Ex: It took me gumption(initiative) to start this blog, and therefore I am grateful for your gumption(determination) to read it! :)

Have some candles handy

2009-11-18T14:35:00.002-05:00

I learned that no matter how miserable I feel, just a single thought is enough, like a candle, to brighten the world.
Question: why not always keep those candles handy?!

- yours truly.

Mindfulness @ Google

2009-11-13T16:47:00.002-05:00

Jon Kabat-Zinn tells about Mindfulness Meditation to Google employees.

Getting Things Done - by David Allen

2009-11-12T15:12:00.003-05:00

David Allen explains GTD:

Reinventing fans

2009-11-11T11:12:00.002-05:00

A revolutionary design for fans: without blades!

Sinking Ship

2009-11-10T11:08:00.002-05:00

If your ship is sinking, don't care about where its pointing.

- David Allen

Habib Jalib - Poetry of Defiance

2009-11-04T11:21:00.002-05:00

Excellent political poetry of Habib Jalib (with English translation) sung by himself.

Faraznama

Trading favors

Access to access

Your voice will give you away

One option is to struggle to be heard whenever you're in the room...

Simple thoughts about fair use

The chance of a lifetime

Merry

Q&A

Unexpected turbulence

The simple first rule of branding and marketing anything (even yourself)

Assorted tips, hope they help

Tools vs insight

The economics of Christmas lights

A great way to give thanks...

Self truth (and the best violinist in the world)

Worth it?

When is it okay to start worrying?

The difference between management and leadership

Back to (the wrong) school

Expanding the circle of 'missed'

"I couldn't have done it without you."

The forever recession (and the coming revolution)

Talker's block

Seth Godin: We Are All Weird

Getting serious about your org chart

Khan Academy

You don't need more time

The space matters

Unreasonable

In and out

Maybe next year...

Sadly stuck with the status quo

Measuring busy-ness...

Bigger or smaller?

Selling

What are you working on?

Prophet (peace be upon him)’s Love – Hajj Lectures

Why Worship Allah – Hajj Lectures

You will be misunderstood

Christmas 2.0

Lesley Hazleton - Paradise in Quran

I spread your idea because...

How media changes politics

Change and its constituents (there are two, and both are a problem)

Two problems with whining

Deliberately uninformed, relentlessly so [a rant]

The fear tax

Hacking education

MQM tables land reforms bill in NA

Do you need a permit?

A galaxy of your own

Generous gifts vs. free samples

Custom shoes made possible with custom AdWords campaigns

The business of software

Demonstrating strength

The Flintstones turn 50 on my birthday

Show me the honey

Our Clinton Global Initiative commitment to Pakistan

"I need you to see things my way"

Rehearsing is for cowards

A Google Health update

Responding to the floods in Pakistan

Ramadan Photography

Resilience and the incredible power of slow change

All Electronic Stores in Canada

The problem with unlimited

Good Guide - iPhone App

How to Fix Anything

Nice Photography Links

Hope and the magic lottery - Seth Godin

Hope and the magic lottery - Seth Godin

Goodbye to the office - Seth Godin

Treatment of Conquered - Quotes from "The Prince"

Real Management

- Agha Hasan AbediOn the Toastmasters Int'l website, I found this quote of Agha Hasan Abedi, the founder and head of BCCI before it was mugged by international powers.

Amir Khan: Fighting stereotypes

Tariq Ramadan on Secularism, Islam, and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West

Tea-Coffee shops

Oh Canada!

- Agha Hasan Abedi

On the Toastmasters Int'l website, I found this quote of Agha Hasan Abedi, the founder and head of BCCI before it was mugged by international powers.