Sunday, December 23, 2007

"The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

In his book The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb gives a fascinating layer by layer account of his views around the major events that impact our lives. Taleb is a former financial type and voracious reader who takes exception with the traditional model of politicians, economists and financiers who follow the bell-shaped curve in predicting events. Taleb's notion is that the truely momentus events that occur in life cannot be categorized so easily. These are not the everyday things that occur, but rather than big ones... what Taleb refers to as the "black swans".

Examples of a black swan would be the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the stock market crash (pick your crash), the devaluation of the dollar and any other event that has the following characteristics:

1. An unpredictable event.
2. Carries a massive impact.
3. It's attempted to be explained as predictable after the fact.

Taleb's notion is that what we do is concentrate on what we know and disregard what we don't. By doing so, though, we miss out on the biggest events with the deepest impact. Another example of this would be the scientists who stick to the things that are worked on by other scientists. Any new discoveries in these areas will be incremental at best and have a fairly limited impact. The alternative to this would be those scientists working out on the fringe of research dealing with highly speculative lines of investigation that most likely will not amount to anything, but have the potential to have enormous impact should they come to fruition.

Two additional interesting things from the book are as follows:
- Should describe things AS they are happening, rather than after the fact. Difference is in recording your impressions as opposed to your memory of what your impressions were.
- Should read a lot.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Magazine reading notes 7: 2007 Jan-Jun 2

Time – July 2
Piece on new TV shows including mention of AMC’s “Mad Men” about 1960s advertising executives
Article on “life hacking” about finding good balance with technology. Websites of note: http://www.43folders.com/, http://www.lifehacker.com/, http://www.lifehack.org/

BusinessWeek – June 4
Review of Pure Digital’s “Flip Video” camcorder

BusinessWeek – Jan 15
Article on 529 college savings accounts

BusinessWeek – June 18
Mention of the parenting website http://www.babble.com/
Article about finding out personal salary comparisons. Websites of note: http://www.salary.com/, http://www.vault.com/, http://www.surveymonkey.com/
Interesting website: http://www.stumbleupon.com/

BusinessWeek – May 7
Piece on idea of companies looking for and testing out what’s hip and next in Tokyo
Article on using the right keyboards for online resume filters

The Wave – June
Profile of SJSU professor Gabriele Rico who wrote “Writing the Natural Way”

BusinessWeek – May 14
List of “25 Most Innovative Companies”

Fast Company – June
Article on Portland, OR based clothing company “Nau” that’s focused on “doing business the right way”
Profile of the Richmond, VA based advertising shop “Martin Agency” that recently won the Wal-Mart account (previously did the Gecko ads for Geico”
Mention of the democratic blog http://www.dailykos.com/
Mention of the website http://www.my.barackobama.com/
Sustainability websites: http://www.alternativeconsumer.com/ & http://www.ecorazzi.com/

Money – March
Financial plan for a soon to retire flight attendant who wants to write a book

WWU newsletter
Memoriam for John Utendale of Bellingham

BusinessWeek – June 25
Profile of two internet entrepreneurs who buy and sell domain names

Fast Company – April
Profile of brand design agency ADK that won the business doing the Xbox 360

Money – June
Home inventory website at http://www.knowyourstuff.org/
Usage of “greening the cleaning” products to help the environment
Chase freedom Visa credit card that gives cash back
Benefits of acupuncture (also over other alternative treatments)

Time – May 14
Profiles of interesting people:
David Mitchell who wrote “Black Swan Green”
General David Petraeus
“Green Governor” Arnold Schwarzenegger
Neil deGrasse Tyson… host of the PBS series “Nova Science”

Fast Company – July/August
Charles Fishman article on the bottled water industry. He also wrote the prior Fast Company piece on CLF lightbulbs as well as the book “The Wal-Mart Effect”
Profile on Al Gore and http://www.current.tv/
Story about http://www.facebook.com/ reaching wide usage among professionals
Piece on Barack Obama’s fundraising through http://www.myobama.com/

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Magazine reading notes 6: 2007 Jan-Jun

Fast Company – Dec/Jan
Online access code: FCDECSOCAP
Mention in “letters” section of An Inconvenient Truth” website

Social Capitalist award winners:
http://www.firstbook.org/
http://www.raisingareader.org/
http://www.handonnetwork.org/ – companies providing volunteers
http://www.grameenfoundation.org/ – microfinance lending to the poor
http://www.aspirepublicschools.org/ – small public charter schools in poor neighborhoods

Toyota’s pursuit of innovation in factory processes (piece on Kentucky facility)

BusinessWeek – Jan 8
CEOs under 40 running publicly traded companies… www.businessweek.com/go/07/under40

BusinessWeek – Jan 15
529 college savings plans whereby you can invest $ now for children’s college… in California, the average tax benefit of the plan results in a 1.2% benefit per year. Details at www.archimedes.com/franktemp/stdc_529.html

Blog @ Starbucks from a non-employee’s view: http://www.starbucksgossip.typepad.com/

Top-selling hardcover business books:”Why We Want You to be Rich” – Donald Trump, “The Starbucks Experience” – Joseph Michelli

Time – Jan 29
Ways to relieve stress: breathe deeply, take a vacation, make friends, exercise regularly, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, don’t stay up late, do what you love (if you can’t find it at work, look for it outside of work)

Esquire – Feb
Piece on the concept of “knowledge is power” and how you have to judiciously provide information to those seeking it… example of a real estate agent (send to Greg)

Profile by Chris Jones on Chris Snow, 25 year-old who previously was the Red Sox beat writer for the Boston Globe and now is Director of Hockey Ops for the Wild (look for more Chris Jones writing in Esquire… maybe e-mail him)

Esquire “napkin project” with fiction writers… www.esquire.com/napkinproject

Profile of Ramsey Clark, former AJ of US who was Saddam Hussein’s lawyer



Fast Company – Feb
Profile of Jeff Han, creator of very cool new touch-screen technology… www.fastcompany.com/keyword/112touch
Online access code: FCFEBMUSIC

IBM’s usage of http://www.secondlife.com/ for business purposes

BusinessWeek – Feb 5
Career angst blog for 20-30 professionals… http://blog/penelopetrunk.com/

Time – Feb 19
Commentary piece on “too cool for preschool” about hip young parents… discusses: http://www.babble.com/, Neal Pollack’s memoir “Alternadad”

BusinessWeek – Mar 12
Online job recruiting blog http://www.cheezhead.com/

Time – Mar 19
Excerpt from “Heyday” by Kurt Anderson about how America came of age in the mid 1850s
“What’s Next” article including compact fluorescent light bulbs

Fast Company – Mar
www.fastcompany.com/keyword/113fast including the fast 50 people & companies
http://www.greenfit.com/ which has videos on living green
article on the Omidyar Network
http://www.alexaholic.com/ which lets you see the popularity of various websites

Esquire – Mar
Chris Jones’ “Too Far From Home” about being stranded on the space station
Opening opinion piece by editor David Granger about reasons for optimism in the world: students in Iran standing up to President Ahmadinejad, Lt Gen David Petraeus being in charge, and the bi-partisanship of pols like Schwarzenegger

BusinessWeek – Mar 12
TED (technology, entertainment & design) conference in Monterey

BusinessWeek – Mar 26
Article on Marcus Buckingham the business writer who did “First, Break All the Rules” in 1999 and recently “Go Put Your Strengths to Work”
Mention of TED conference

Time – Mar 26
Article on Douglas Hofstadter who long ago wrote “Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golder Braid” and recently “I Am a Strange Loop”

Time – Apr 2
Cover story on why the Bible should be taught in public schools
Review of Buckley book

BusinessWeek – Apr 9
Review of Christopher Buckey’s “Boomsday” about suicide at age 65
Interview with Peter Bernstein where he discusses his new book “Capital Risk Evolving”

Esquire – Apr
Chris Jones’ profile on Barry Zito & mention of Canadian bands The Weakerthans & Arcade Fire

Fast Company – May
Cover story on http://www.facebook.com/ @ www.fastcompany.com/keyword/115facebook

Money – May
Piece on how many airlines are shortening the time in which miles expire if no account activity. Can earn miles at http://www.e-miles.com/

Magazine reading notes 5: 2006 Jul-Dec

BusinessWeek – July 3
http://www.bloggingheads.tv/

Time – July 10
“Voice of this Generation” piece on how there currently is not an author who is perceived as writing something transcendent that is felt by that generation. People discussed are Curtis Sittenfeld, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Safran Foer, Chuck Palahniuk

Time – July 17
Interview with Katherine Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the US. Believes that evolution should in fact be taught in schools and that gays and lesbians can be full members of the Church. Favorite verse in the Bible is Isaiah chapter 61

Article about Genome mapper Francis Collins who is also an evangelical Christian. Wrote the book “The Language of God (A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief)”. Sounds interesting, but “Mere Christianity” sounds better…

Time – July 24
M Night Shyamalan profile which references Michael Bamberger’s “The Man Who Heard Voices…”

Time – July 31
10 Questions with Morgan Spurlock who did Super Size Me and 30 Days

BusinessWeek – July 31
Social Networking piece about http://www.kiva.org/ through which people can request and grant loans in small amounts for business capital

http://www.tedblog.typepad.com/ about the TED (technology, entertainment & design) conference

BusinessWeek – Aug 7
Review of Michael Mauboussin’s book “More Than You Know” about investment philosophy, innovation and complexity theory. Sounds interesting…

Time – Aug 7
Review of Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center”. Sounds interesting…

Review of IFC show “The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman” (Fridays 11:00EST) about a Hollywood writer trying to make it

BusinessWeek – Aug 14
Cover story on http://www.digg.com/
Other websites of interest mentioned: http://www.slide.com/, http://www.yelp.com/, http://del.ici.ous/, http://www.dailycandy.com/

Time – Aug 21
Forthcoming books… “The Blind Side” by Michael Lewis about football and “Thunderstruck” by Erik Larson

Story about pre-fabricated cabins with small square footage that have great design: models include weeHouses & Rotorhaus

BusinessWeek – Aug 21/28
http://www.metacool.typepad.com/ by Diego Rodriguez from IDEO

Time – Aug 28
Profile of author Jonathan Franzen who wrote both “The Discomfort Zone” and “The Corrections”… lives part of the year near San Jose

Fast Company – September
Profile on Jeff Skoll

Article on Compact Fluorescent (CFL / Swirl) light bulbs and Wal-Mart’s emphasis on them

Blogs: http://www.customerevangelists.typepad.com/, http://www.customersarealways.com/, http://curiousshopper.blogspot.com/

http://www.sarasotadesignsummit.com/

Money – September
Cover story with lessons from individuals living in the richest zip codes in the US

Time – September 11
Article on the “LivingHomes” house built to a Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating

Budget Travel – September
Idea of mashup maps overlaying interesting places onto Google Maps. Example: www.communitywalk.com/map/65 with London views & http://www.googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/ with a searchable index

Fascinating jobs that people have involving travel: http://www.budgettravelonline.com/

BusinessWeek – Sept 4
Ways to do home inventory: free software download from Insurance Information Institute at http://www.knowyourstuff.org/ and Quicken Home Inventory Manager ($30)

Website by former Nike and Wieden & Kennedy ad guy http://www.russelldavies.typepad.com/


Time – Sept 18
Piece on museums going high-tech to attract a greater audience.

BusinessWeek – Sept 25
Cover story on how health-care has added 1.7M new jobs since 2001… with the rest of the private sector adding an aggregate zero

Inside Innovation section of BW
Blogs: www.darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/, http://www.tedblog.typepad.com/, www.jimcarroll.com/weblog, www.innovationtools.com/weblog/innovation-weblog.asp

BusinessWeek – Oct 9
Profile on top design education programs

Fast Company – Oct
“Masters of Design” issue… www.fastcompany.com/keyword/masters109
Features: Puma’s design approach, Paula Scher (“the wordsmith”)
Software that tracks your airline miles on a downloaded app… http://www.mileport.com/
Blogs… http://thesportsbizblog.blogspot.com/, http://thesportseconomist.com/, http://sports-law.blogspot.com/

Time – Oct 16
John Grishham book “The Innocent Man”, a true crime novel about a former baseball player… sounds interesting

BusinessWeek – Oct 16
BMW factory with design for speed and success

Time – Oct 23
Interesting web sites: http://www.farecast.com/ with airline fares, http://www.zillow.com/, http://www.yelp.com/ with local business reviews, http://www.30boxes.com/ calendar site

BusinessWeek – Oct 30
“The Blind Side” by Michael Lewis
Ford Motor internal website http://www.fordboldmoves.com/ about both good and bad things Ford is doing
Book excerpt about Wipro Ltd in India

Esquire – Oct
Profile on 21 year-old filmmaker David Lehre who created the most watched short video in YouTube history. Exclusive different video available at http://www.esquire.com/


Time – Nov 6
Article on personal brand/marketing consultants

Esquire – Nov
“The Paris Review Interviews I” with interviews with 16 authors
Christopher Nolan Q&A
“Shut Up and Sing” by the Dixie Chicks

Time – not sure
Review of “King Dork” by Frank Portman formerly of The Mr T Experience. Book is about the high school years and going through them
Travel guides: Moleskin City Notebooks, Wallpaper City Guides, Time Out Shortlist

BusinessWeek – Dec 11
Cover story on Best Buy’s ultra-flexible working schedules and locations

Time – Dec 18
Cover story on America’s broken school system. Ideas in story: 1. Know more about the world 2. Interdisciplinary combination of ideas 3. Becoming smart about sources of information 4. developing good people skills
Includes mention of Scott McNealy’s site http://curriki.org/ which contains “open source” courses
Annie Leibovitz book review
Environmentally conscious Christmas ideas: LED lights, living Christmas tree, donations as gifts… http://www.treehugger.com/, not using traditional gift wrap (newspapers, old cassette and VHS tapes as ribbons)

BusinessWeek – Dec 18
Architectural feats… www.businessweek.com/go/06wonders
“How to change the world” blog by VC guy… http://blog.guykawasaki.com/
Profiles of Rachel Ray and her “30 minute meals” as well as Zipcar car sharing company
Products/Ideas of the year: http://www.teslamotors.com/ electric sports car, Phillips bodygroomer… http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/, http://www.secondlife.com/, interactive consumers, microloans (Muhammad Yunus)
Albums of the year: “Love” by The Beatles, “Live at the Hammersmith Odeon” – Bruce
Books of the year: includes “More Than You Know”

Time – Dec 25-Jan 1
“Person of the Year – You” issue. People included:
1. Ali Khurshid from Pakistan who posts photos at http://www.flickr.com/
2. Video podcast cooking show called “Crash Test Kitchen”
3. Prolific http://www.amazon.com/ book reviewer Harriet Klausner
4. Tila Tequila http://www.myspace.com/ “celebrity”
5. French rapper Kamini who can be found at http://www.kamini.fr/
6. Various websites: http://www.secondlife.com/, music site http://www.last.fm/, http://www.digg.com/, http://www.del.icio.us/, http://www.blogger.com/, http://www.googlemaps.com/, http://www.beerhunter.ca/, http://www.wikipedia.com/
Joe Klein piece about admirable people: including the creator of “The Wire” from HBO
Piece on Iraq Study Group report
Esquire – Dec
Christopher Guest movie “For Your Consideration”
A.J. Jacobs book “The Know It All…” about reading the Encyclopedia Britannica
Profile on Philip Rosedale the creator of http://www.secondlife.com/

Magazine reading notes 4: 2006 Jan-Jun

Outside – Jan
“Outside Fitness” – Paul Scott
Work out in the AM, stretch, keep at it…
“The Hard Way” piece by Mark Jenkins about the challenge for the adventurer of leaving home and those you love

Time – Dec 26 ’05-Jan 2 ‘06
“The Year We Questioned Authority” by Andrew Sullivan – about the public no longer providing a free pass to public figures
“Persons of the Year” about Bono and Bill & Melinda Gates

BusinessWeek – Jan 30
“Three Minute Moguls” about online independent filmmakers – including JibJab Media Inc: shorts have been “This Land” & “2-0-5”
“Would You Recommend Us?” about using this question on a 1-10 scale to measure customer satisfaction
“HP’s Ultimate Team Player” about Ann Livermore

Fast Company – Jan/Feb
“In Good Company” about author Max Barry who used to work at HP in corporate sales – left to write full-time in 1998
www.fastcompany.com/keyword/102social - access code: FCJANSOCAP

Money – Feb
Disaster preparedness: should have full replacement cost coverage for items, should make sure home additions are reflected in your insurance, should take a record/inventory of your items and keep in a fireproof safe

BusinessWeek – March 6
“Follow My Money” about bloggers opening up their personal finances: http://www.mymoneyblog.com/, http://www.bostongalsopenwallet.com/, http://www.pfblog.com/, http://www.moneybognetwork.com/, http://www.savvysaver.blogspot.com/, http://www.networthiq.com/

BusinessWeek – March 13
Sports podcasts: http://www.biketalkradio.com/, http://www.sportsbusinessradio.com/

BusinessWeek – March 20
“Making It Work by not Doing it All” about Xerox CTO Sophie Vandebroek: priorities in life and work

Time – April 10
Review of “A Death In Belmont” by Sebastian Junger about a murder in his childhood hometown



Time – April 17
Book excerpt from “Politics Lost” by Joe Klein about the influence of consultants and image managers in politics
Profile of author James Patterson who previously was CEO of JWT Advertising
Piece on http://www.channel101.com/

Outside – not sure
“40 Trips of a Lifetime”

Fast Company – April
Review of “Apex Hides the Hurt” by Colson Whitehead” about a brand name writer for hire

Time – April 24
Viral video impact – those that can be found on http://www.youtube.com/ : numa numa, david elsewhere, lazy Sundays, brokeback to the future

Fast Company – May
“Join the Corporate Literati” about writing whilst still having a full-time job

Better Homes and Gardens – May
Ceiling tiles from http://www.armstrong.com/

Time – May 8
“People of the Year” issue – including: Dixie Chicks, Howard Stern, Rachel Ray, Matt Drudge of http://www.drudgereport.com/, Jeff Skoll, M Night Shyamalan Amex advert, creators of http://www.myspace.com/, creator of http://www.wikipedia.com/

Money – May
“50 Best Jobs” information at www.cnnmoney.com/bestjobs

BusinessWeek – May 15
Profile of “I heart NY” logo creator – design guru Milton Glaser who wrote “The Design of Dissent” about visual challenges against tyranny
www.businessweek.com/go/06/designers

Time – May 22
Review of Curtis Settenfeld’s book “The Man of My Dreams” about the youth of a young girl: sounds ok…

Time – June 12
Review of Jason Roberts’ “A Sense of the World” about blind explorer James Holman: sounds really interesting…

Fast Company – June
Article on social networking sites with mention of “myspace killer” http://www.tagworld.com/

BusinessWeek – June 12
Profile of designer William McDonough who wrote “Cradle to Cradle” and redesigned the Ford River Rouge complex in Michigan

Time – June 19
Profile of architect Jean Nouvel who designed the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN
Advert for “The World Series of Pop Culture” on VH1 July 10th

BusinessWeek – June 19
“In Design” section…
Profile of Patrick Whitney, director of IIT Institute of Design in Chicago: largest graduate school of design in the US
Curriculum focuses on design strategy and innovation: 80% of courses don’t actually involve making things,
Includes class in: “user observation and early prototyping” for understanding customers’ wants, “new product development”, “design languages” for making presentations, and “systems designs” for designing business organizations

Profiles on the following people with favorite websites / books:
Ivy Ross of Old Navy: http://www.psfk.com/, http://www.mocoloco.com/, “Messages from Water”, “Synchronocity”
Sam Lucente VP, Design of HP: http://www.techcrunch.com/, http://www.zpluspartners.com/, http://www.designobserver.com/, “Creating Breakthrough Products”, “The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
Marissa Meyer of Google: http://www.goodexperience.com/, “Nussbaum on Design”, “The Paradox of Choice”, “The Psychology of Everyday Things”, “The Art of Innovation”
Claudia Kotchka of PG&E: http://www.metacool.typepad.com/, www.experientia.com/blog, http://www.headrush.typepad.com/, “Cradle to Crade”, “A General Theory of Love”, “Rules of the Red Rubber Ball”
Amy Radin of Citigroup: http://www.coolhunting.com/, http://www.core77.com/, http://www.innovationtools.com/, http://www.strategy-business.com/, http://www.springwise.com/, “Dealing with Darwin”, “Seeing what’s Next”

Lucente is considered in part an ethnographer and launched a research project following the lives of families in their homes – result was his design team creating “Q control” which attaches to all HP products and allows for quick and easy use
“Keep the Change” from Bank of America – very successful program

BusinessWeek – June 19
“Stalking High-Tech Sweatshops” about HP’s Bonnie Nixon-Gardiner, program manager for supply chain and environmental responsibility – outcome of her efforts has been the EICC (electronics industry code of conduct) created along with other tech companies
“Tech Has a New Top Dog” about HP being projected to pass IBM in 2006 annual sales: $91B vs. $90.5B
“A Real Stake in Your Customers” about marketing firm Resource Interactive buying a share of stock in each publicly traded client for each of it’s 140 employees
Time – June 26
Article by Dr Andrew Weil about the benefits of fish oil supplements

Bicycling – June
Best value full suspension MB: Specialized FSR XC Comp: $1,500
Best XC performance MB: Specialized S-Works Epic Carbon: $1,700
Best MB < $1K: Jamis Dakar: $825
Best all-around MB: Santa Cruz Nomad: $3,654

Magazine reading notes 3: 2005 Sep-Dec

Outside – Sept ‘05
Article on jobs people love. Interesting websites:
http://www.jobmonkey.com/, http://www.jocrf.org/ for finding yourself

Esquire – Oct ‘05
Piece by Chris Jones on Ricky Williams return to the NFL
Jones is an excellent writer… interested in reading more of his stuff

Fast Company – Sept ‘05
Advertising Creative Director Phil Dusenberry with excerpts from his book “Then We Set His Hair On Fire”. Examples from HBO & Gillette
Terri Kelly, CEO of Gore and Associates

BusinessWeek – Sept 26, ‘05
Special Report on the collaborative powers of the internet and how people are using it
Interesting websites…
Home: http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/. Sounds like it has very interesting societal and popular culture insight, www.makezine.com/blog.com, http://www.boingboing.net/, http://www.photolog.net/ & http://www.freecycle.org/
Play: http://www.cyworld.com/, http://www.myspace.com/, http://www.defectiveyeti.com/
Work: http://www.wikipedia.org/, http://www.del.icio.us/, http://www.answers.com/, http://www.basecamp.com/, http://www.digg.com/
Public Domain: http://www.donarschoose.org/, http://www.freecycle.org/, http://www.topix.net/
Toolbox : http://www.blogger.com/, http://www.myyahoo.com/, http://www.odeo.com/

BusinessWeek – Oct 17, ‘05
Advertising consultant Rishad Tobaccowala on how marketing has changed and will continue to change. How advertising will become “more science, less art”.
Cover story on Dr Andrew Weil about “living naturally”… (CS & MAPA) http://www.integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/
Meditation, diet, nutrients & exercise
Discusses the dangers of inflammation in the body
Book websites: www.powells.com/features/bookclubs.html, http://www.booksense.com/, www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnonfiction.html (also has a section of 100 best novels)

Fast Company – Oct ‘05
Trendspotting websites: http://www.coolhunting.com/, http://www.ypulse.com/, http://www.psfk.com/
“The Ten Faces of Innovation” by Tom Kelly of IDEO
www.fastcompany.com/keyword/99fc: FCOCTCUSTOMER

BusinessWeek – Oct 31, ‘05
Aylwin Lewis, new CEO of Sears: right hand man of Eddie Lampert
Began a career in retail management by being an assistant manager at Jack in the Box… “found that leading a restaurant staff satisfied his need to teach”

BusinessWeek – Nov 7, 05
Jeff Skoll and http://www.participantproductions.com/

BusinessWeek – Nov 14, ‘05
Pierre Omidyar creating the “Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund”
De Young museum in San Francisco… fascinating architecture with a copper skin
Story on Prefab houses: IKEA prefab houses sold in Europe, Dwell Homes out of San Francisco, weeHouse out of MN

BusinessWeek – Nov 21, ‘05
WebSmart 50 piece about how the internet is changing marketing and bringing it much closer to the consumer
http://www.digg.com/ is backed by the Omidyar Network among other investors. Let’s people vote on what stories they find most interesting

BusinessWeek – Nov 28, ‘05
Cover story on Peter Drucker… asked the question “What do you want to contribute?”

BusinessWeek – Dec 12, ‘05
Cover story on social networking: http://www.buzz-oven.com/ (sponsored by Coca-Cola), http://www.xanga.com/, http://www.myspace.com/
Article on the swelling #s of remote workers

Time – Dec 12, ‘05
Piece on Steven Speilberg and “Munich”
Article on prefab housing: Parish House
Unique hotel options: Hotel des Arts in San Francisco, Hotel Ingio in Atlanta, Chicago & Houston, Easy Hotel in London, Hotel QT in NYC
Recommended books: “His Excellency: George Washington” “Runaway” – Alice Munro, “One Hundred Demons” – Lynda Barry, “Europe Central” – William Vollmann

Magazine reading notes 2: 2005 Jan-Aug

Fortune – Jan 10, ‘05
Blogging in the “10 tech trends” section
http://www.boingboing.net/, Dan Gillmor’s blog, http://www.scobleizer.com/ on Microsoft, http://www.coolhunting.com/
Things that have been broken by bloggers: Kryptonite locks, Dan Rather’s piece on Bush in the National Guard
Bloggers in a way are like the early adopters from the Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado books

Fast Company – Jan ‘05
Social entrepreneurship: www.fastcompany.com/keyword/social90
Access code: FCJANSOCIAL

BusinessWeek – Mar 7, ‘05
Article on Social Venture giving groups where people pool together resources and donate to worthy projects
www.givingforum.org/givingcircles
Sounds like a really interesting way to give $ and time whilst also getting involved in a larger network and cause

BusinessWeek – Mar 22, ‘05
GE and Jeff Immelt
Focus on getting all GE employees to take risks and look for breakthrough innovations
Members of the “Commercial Council” of GE’s top several hundred managers have to submit at least 3 imagination breakthrough proposals a year for consideration (each one has to have potential for at least $100M in business)
The company has 307,000 employees
GE has a two year-long commercial leadership program through which it sends the best marketers in the company
GE is ways in trying to emulate the marketing prowess of P&G

Fast Company – Mar ‘05
Paul Weitz wrote and directed both “About a Boy” and “In Good Company”
Mention of what a good movie “American Splendor” is
“Brand Sense” – Martin Lindstrom – supposed to be a good book on branding

Unknown
Winners of directing contest

Time – Apr 4, ‘05
Blogs created by movie directors
Zach Braff’s blog – http://www.gardenstate.typepad.com/
Peter Jackson’s blog – http://www.kongisking.net/
Superman Returns blog – http://www.bluetights.net/
Time – Apr ‘05
Article on IDEO and it’s clients

San Jose Mercury News – May 1, ‘05
Article in the Travel section about the husband, wife & 10-year old daughter that hiked the entire PCT from Mexico to Canada

BusinessWeek – May 2, ‘05
Interesting piece on Shawn Nelson who founded http://www.lovesac.com/ and won Rebel Billionaire

Fast Company – May ‘05
Piece on blogging
Favorite blogs: http://www.smartmobs.com/, www.joshrubin.com/coolhunting.com, http://www.lifehacker.com/, http://www.boingboing.net/, http://www.steverubel.typepad.com/, http://www.ross.typepad.com/
Want to put in the time to have fresh original things to say and to comment on other people’s blogs you find interesting

BusinessWeek – May 2, ‘05
Piece on blogging
Likely have links to the blogs below in the BW article online
Places where a free account can be set up: http://www.blogger.com/ by Google, http://www.typepad.com/
Blogs to check out: micro persuasion by Steve Rubel, Grassroots Media by Dan Gillmor who was with the Mercury News, technorati, pubsub, http://www.ohmynews.com/, http://www.blogspotting.net/
Really simple syndication: a tool that search for key words in blogs and notifies the searcher

Money – May ’05
Good mountain bike – Cannondale Prophet 600 - $1,600 – http://www.cannondale.com/
Another mountain bike – Marin Northside Trail - $590 – http://www.rei.com/
Good helmet – Specialized Chamonix, $24 http://www.specialized.com/

BusinessWeek – June 13, ‘05
Oregon Brewers Festival – sounds like fun. July 28-31. http://www.oregonbrewfest.com/

BusinessWeek – June 20, ‘05
Article on internet collaboration changing business. Examples: blogs, file sharing, feedback on eBay, reviews on amazon, car sharing services,
http://www.meetup.com/
“There’s a fundamental shift in power happening. Everywhere, people are getting together and, using the internet, disrupting whatever activities they’re involved in.” – Pierre Omidyar
Big companies utilizing intelligence of the crowds: HP, Eli Lilly, P&G, Lego
http://www.wikipedia.com/ – online encyclopedia

BusinessWeek – June 6, ‘05
Podcasting websites: http://www.podcastalley.com/ or http://www.ipodder.org/ – catalogs www.wehatesheep.com/americancopywriter - discussion of movie and advertising biz, http://www.morningcoffenotes.com/ – led by Dave Winer, Podcasting pioneer guy, http://www.hardcoreinsomniaradio.com/ – independent rock music

Fast Company – June ‘05
Piece on Dave Eggers, writer of “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” & editor of “McSweeney’s Quarterly”
www.fastcompany.com/social - about the Social Capitalist awards
Design blogs: http://www.designobserver.com/ – written by seven designers, http://weblogs/media.mit.edu/simplicity - written by an MIT design guru, http://www.core77.com/ – written by industrial designers
Piece about the Japanese company Muji – minimalist goods with no labels
www.fastcompany.com/keyword/95fc - access code: FCJUNEDESIGN
www.fastcompany.com/keyword/95design

Money – July ‘05
http://www.moneyclubs.com/, http://www.morethanmoney.org/, http://www.meetup.com/

BusinessWeek – July 11, ‘05
Finance blogs:
http://www.andrewtobias.com/ – run by the treasurer of the DNC, http://www.wealthyblogger.com/, http://www.thekirkreport.com/, http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/, http://www.bigpicture.typepad.com/

BusinessWeek – July 18, ‘05
http://www.earth.google.com/ – maps, maps, maps, maps


BusinessWeek – July 25, ‘05
Investing piece about P&G being an attractive stock with the Gillette merger moving forward
http://www.chicagocrime.org/ – has maps showing crimes by area
http://www.a9.com/ – Amazon’s new search engine
Best cities for entrepreneurs: www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_30/online.htm
Article on how it’s extremely likely that Google and yahoo will likely move into blog search (currently being performed primarily by http://www.technorati.com/) – challenge is to incorporate time into a search

Fast Company – Aug ‘05
Marketing blogs: www.corante.com/brandshift, http://brandnoise.typepad.com/, www.igorinternational.com/blog
www.fastcompany.com/keyword/97blogs: access code: FCAUGUSTHR

Article on “Flow”… companies are working now to try to implement the ideas of flow. Companies doing so: Patagonia, Microsoft
Idea behind flow: track happiness obsessively, focus on the personal in workers and yourself, set clear expectations, don’t interrupt

BusinessWeek – Aug 1, ‘05
www.businessweek.com/innovate
New “innovation & design channel” on the site
List on most innovative companies in the world. Companies of note: Apple, GE, Dell, Google, P&G, Ideo, Starbucks

Outside – Sept ‘05
Article on jobs people love. Interesting websites:
http://www.jobmonkey.com/, http://www.jocrf.org/ for finding yourself

Magazine reading notes 1: 1999-2004

Pre-2003

Sports Illustrated
Rick Reilly piece on Ben Comen the high school runner with cerebral palsy
April 12, ’99 Rick Reilly piece on “the meaning of life”

2003

Fast Company – Nov ‘03
Article on Herminia Ibarra who wrote “Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career”
She rejects the idea of trying to search and find your “one true calling” and then starting that. Instead, she advocates doing things to try out various possibilities, volunteering, getting involved, etc
Article on Russell Simmons… quote describing him: “He’s just interested in people: and because he’s interested, they’re interested. He wants to know the nuances of how other people live, receive art, and experience culture.”

BusinessWeek – Dec 1, ‘03
Article on philanthropy featuring piece on Jeff Skoll
Originally wanted to be a writer, now interested in promoting social entrepreneurs

Money – Dec ‘03
Giving circles… http://www.givingnetwork.org/

2004

Time – Aug ‘04
Article on prediction markets created by companies
Bernardo Hubermann from HP is director of the group that designs and coordinates the markets to forecast sales. Quote… “A company that can predict the future is a company that can win.”

Time – Oct ‘04
Pre-fabricated houses…
Lindal Cedar Homes with two designs by Michael Graves and another by James Cutler who designed Bill Gates’ house
Adam Kalkin another designer
Michelle Kaufmann and Glidehouse
National Parks advertising section…
http://www.nationalparks.org/
Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Crater Lake in Oregon, Arches in Utah

Time – Oct 11, ‘04
Article on Alex Bogusky of Crispin, Porter & Bogusky… the agency that came up with http://www.subservientchicken.com/

BusinessWeek – Oct 25, ‘04
Article on Yao Ming and the five-year marketing plan written for him


BusinessWeek – Nov 29, ‘04
Special report on philanthropy
Pierre Omidyar – The Omidyar Network – based in Redwood City: http://www.omidyar.net/ – contains discussion of how the $ should be spent
Places that get Omidyar $: Ashoka, Global Giving, DonorsChoose
59% of philanthropic $ gets contributed by families with household incomes under $100k
Resource Generation – a nonprofit that advises wealthy Gen Xers on how to give away $
Fast Company – Dec ‘04
Social Capital article: access code – FCDECCREATIVITY
www.fastcompany.com/keyword/gift89

Money – Nov ‘04
Article on Peter Bernstein who wrote “Against the Gods” about financial risk
“Maximizing returns is an investment strategy that makes sense only in very specific circumstances. In general, survival is the only road to riches. You should try to maximize returns only if losses would not threaten your survival and if you have a compelling future need for the extra gains you might earn.”
Concept is that you never will know the absolute highest point an investment will reach, so you never attempt to simply maximize, you always balance against risk.
“Diversification is both recognition of ignorance and an aggressive strategy because it puts you in position to profit from wherever the next big hit might come.”
‘You can never be sure that today’s market is going to be a replay of the past.”
New book he wrote: “Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation”

Fast Company – Nov ‘04
Author Michael Ray who wrote “Creativity in Business” and “The Highest Goal”
www.fastcompany.com/bookclub
Article on Dell supply-chain and how quickly they move and react
Online access: www.fastcompany.com/keyword/fc88 access code: FCNOVFORWARD

BusinessWeek – Dec 13, ‘04
Piece about the aluminum bottles from Iron City Beer: http://www.pittsburghbrewingcom.com/ and other new product innovations