This article was originally published on November 21st, 2008. A lot has changed in the last 7 years - unfortunately, the prevalence of bad rhetoric in our public discourse hasn't... Like many people on election night, I found myself glued to the TV for the capstone speeches by both candidates. I have to admit, though, that I was watching for a few reasons that were probably much different than most people. I wanted to see how the candidates would use the 2,500-year-old discipline of rhetoric – the art of verbal persuasion and argument. I was not disappointed. Both John McCain and Barack Obama delivered carefully crafted messages full … [Read more...]
Stumbling on Happiness – Daniel Gilbert
This article was originally published on November 21st, 2011. It still comes up in conversations with friends, clients, and colleagues. Good stuff (even if Dan is now schilling financial services...good on him for making a few bucks!). Happiness is the ever-elusive holy grail that we keep chasing – and it seems after all of our efforts, we’re not getting any closer to achieving it. The problem, as Daniel Gilbert points out in the beginning of Stumbling on Happiness, is that we even struggle to even define what happiness is! Stumbling on Happiness is one of the few books that I’ve read that tackles the question of our happiness from a … [Read more...]
Renewal in the Wilderness – John Lionberger
This article was originally published on July 25th, 2008. John is still a good friend and every conversation we have is insightful and fun. When I played in a band, I learned an interesting quirk of human nature – when we played a gig with other bands, the degree to which we liked the people in the band influenced how much we liked the band’s music. Reading Renewal in the Wilderness by John Lionberger was a fun experience for me, as I am lucky enough to call John a friend of mine. He’s “good people” and someone I’ve gotten to know over my career. So I admit that I’m a little biased. When I gave him feedback on the book, the highest … [Read more...]
The 8 Things You Must Know or Your Life Will Totally Suck
If you don’t understand sarcasm, then please, for your own mental and emotional safety, don’t read any farther: Always remember: You are the victim. Everyone who tells you that their life is tough is full of crap because they don't understand how really tough your life is. They’ve obviously never been in your shoes for a day. If you feel that the universe is conspiring against you, it's because it is. You can’t go 20 minutes without someone deliberately making your life harder than it has to be. Throughout your life, you’ve always been the wrong height, weight, gender, ethnicity, and even when it seemed like you’ve had all of the … [Read more...]
The Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This article was originally published on May 29th, 2010. Since then, Nassim has continued to be controversial and thought-provoking. And I like having my thoughts provoked! Big Thought Definition of a black swan event: “First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable. I stop and summarize the triplet: rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective … [Read more...]
The Best Way to Honor the Soldiers on Memorial Day
It's Memorial Day in the U.S., the day we acknowledge and honor our servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the country. And later in the year we'll also have Veterans Day to honor those still soldiers still living, I think it's important to remember those who paid a price for others. It could have been separation from their loved ones, physical or emotional injury, or the ultimate sacrifice. But many have given much to safeguard the ideals that we hold in high regard. It's fitting to acknowledge them - and to remember those who sacrificed in the past. Mindfulness = Memory It is called Memorial Day for a … [Read more...]
Purple Cow – Seth Godin
This article was originally published on June 30th 2010. And Seth keeps pumping out insightful ideas on current marketing! Big Thought Because the modern consumer is overwhelmed by information, the most effective way to market is to create products and services that are remarkable and stand out – leading people to want to talk about them.[Tweet "The most effective way to market is to create products and services that are remarkable"] Ideas, Implications, and Questions It’s interesting that Seth focuses on a “holistic” view of marketing: instead of seeing marketing as something separate from the product development, what the product is … [Read more...]
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