I am a convert. As I have written before, I now buy most of my books (all that are available digitally) on Amazon’s Kindle App for my iPad. I get my protein bars though Amazon. I get my ink for my printer from Amazon. And a whole lot more. And my experience on Amazon has… Read More Amazon’s Secret – Make it Easy; Make it Fast; Make it Insanely Convenient
One of the most popular books for our CCN on-site presentations last year was The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” by Nicholas Carr (New York: Norton, 2010). In that book, he discusses how the Internet tinkers with the brain, reamps its neural circuitry, and reprograms the memory. While the mind… Read More The Never-Finished Book: Problems with Perpetual In-Progress Revising
I tried to think of the nicest way to say this – the best way. The “wash his mouth out with soap” was one such way. Another might be, “Mr. Luntz, you’re too smart for this, so please just shut your mouth.” Here is what the wrote – page 271, in his newest book, Win:… Read More Why Frank Luntz Needs To Wash His Mouth Out With Soap
In Win: The Key Principles to Take Your Business from Ordinary to Extraordinary, the third book I have read and presented (after Friday) by Frank Luntz, we read his “conclusions” at the very beginning of the book. Here they are: • The 15 universal attributes of winners (Luntz’s summary of his “conclusions”)… 1) the ability to grasp the… Read More The 15 Universal Attributes Of Winners – Insight From Win by Frank Luntz
Let me help you plan your reading for 2011. The issue is… Leadership Development. Look at those words. Think about them. They say a lot. Mainly they say this – leaders have to be developed, and leaders have to focus on, and work on, continual development. This does not happen by accident. Some leaders may… Read More Here’s a Suggested Reading List for Leadership Development (for 2011) – Now, with Update
My colleague Karl Krayer teaches eight principles in his sessions on writing skills. One principle is this: economize words. It is a valuable principle. Jason Fried (37Signals; co-author of Rework), recently put this up on his blog. (I first read it through Andrew Sullivan, here). I recently took some Q&A. The last question was asked… Read More Do You want to Communicate Clearly? – Economize words! (“The Future Belongs to the Best Editors,” says Jason Fried)
I was re-looking at my handout from the book Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear by Frank Luntz. This quote jumped out at me, again: We have certainly seen instances in which language has been used to cloud our judgment and blur the facts, but its beauty – the true… Read More Say It As Well As You Possibly Can
I recently presented my synopsis of the Frank Luntz book, What Americans Really Want… Really, and read this quote from the book: To be successful, you have to be willing to set aside what you know, even if it took you a lifetime to learn it. You have to listen, constantly, to a cacophony of… Read More you have to be willing to set aside what you know – more thoughts on change
I’m speaking at the Nonprofit Organizations Institute for the University of Texas School of Law Continuing Legal Education. (No, I am not an attorney). My assignment: American Wants and Identities: Thoughts for the Corporate and Nonprofit Sectors. I am pulling together key thoughts from two books, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes by… Read More Six Realities about our current era – drawn from Penn (Microtrends), Luntz (What Americans Really Want), and Godin (Tribes)
It’s tough for college graduates out there, thus it is tough for current college students. What should today’s student major in? In today’s NY Times, one of the top e-mailed articles wrestles with this question: CAREER U. — Making College ‘Relevant’ by Kate Zerniuke. After discussing the decline of/loss of philosophy majors, and the ascendancy… Read More The Disappearing University Education and the Rise of the Trade School Education — a serious, festering problem (w/reading suggestions)
First Friday Book Synopsis 