This article was originally published on February 25th, 2009. There are more and more ronin about as the workplace continues to change. Based on the title, it would be easy to mistake this book for a treatise on wandering samurai warriors. What Beverly Potter has done instead, is use the idea of the ronin, or wandering knights of medieval Japan, as a metaphor to describe the role of today’s independent professional in the changing economy. Similar to Dan Pink’s ideas in Free Agent Nation, and my idea of the New Entrepreneur, Beverly writes that the fundamental structure of the economy is shifting, and she submits that the “ronin” 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...]