I posted yesterday that Mr. Reader on the iPad was my new favorite RSS reader. A bunch of folks had a bunch of questions as to why, so I thought I’d take the time to explain it more clearly. The basic interface is quite straightforward: Once you read an article, if in the settings you’ve…
Recently, a few folks have asked if (insert name here) social network is a ghost town. Let’s be clear to start: any place with more than a million people in it is by default not a ghost town. If Twitter/Facebook/Google+ had under a million people in it, then I think you could make the claim…
Over the long weekend I had enough time to read the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs. Talk about a wonderful read, engrossing from start to finish. It was clear even just early on in the book that Steve was a very flawed individual with many personal demons that chased him throughout his life, and…
One of my earliest memories of the power of information and the hold it can have over people dates all the way back to fourth grade. That was the year for me that two things happened. First, we were required in English class to read Louise Fitzhugh’s book Harriet the Spy, in which a young…
I was sitting in a diner recently, ordering some breakfast, when the waitress asked the patron next to me the very short question, “The usual?”. He responded with a nod and a mumble, followed by his breakfast far faster than mine. At the local Vietnamese restaurant, I have a particular dish I enjoy and get…
Over the weekend I had the privilege of attending a seminar with Stephen K. Hayes, my teacher’s teacher, at the Boston Martial Arts Center. The weekend’s topics were many and varied, but I took my own advice (as I always do with Mr. Hayes) and brought my list of burning questions. Here’s the sign of…
One of the most common questions I received over the last few days from CEOs and executives was, “Can you automate social media?” The question was asked not out of laziness, but out of trying to be as efficient as possible or being very resource-constrained. The answer is yes and no. Yes, you can automate…
Every now and again, you have to phone it in. That’s the unpleasant truth of people with busy lives. It should ideally be highly infrequent, but if you’re busy, I guarantee it will happen. When you have to phone it in, one of the best things to do is find something of yours that’s high…
Think carefully about the overused term “game-changing”. Let’s say you’re playing tennis, and the game isn’t going so well. You decide that you need a “game-changing move”, pull out a shotgun, and blast the ball out of the air. Have you changed the game? Absolutely. Have you changed it for the better? No, not to…
In my daily routine, I’ve plotted out 4 kinds of numbers that I look at daily to see how things are going and give me an instant read on what I need to be focusing on. 1. Conversions: I look at the end results first. I look to see whether anything of value is being…
