This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics - Grant McCracken

The trail takes a turn to stop at This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics.

An anthropologist who studies America is struck by the fact that there are some people in this culture who believe they know better than other people in this culture. It's not always a delusion and when indeed they do know better, we are well served. Smart, thoughtful people give us the benefit of their advice.

But too often the critics act as if they are they only ones who "get it," that without them the rest of us wander without light, unable to see what is wrong, unable to see that something is wrong, and certainly unable to put wrong things right.

Read Grant's full posting here.

Grant writes in his About page:

In the First World, culture is constantly formed and reformed by commerce.

Back to school for the anthropologist: in my case, to economics and complexity theory. I hold a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago and I have taught at the Harvard Business School.

The places that culture and commerce, anthropology and economics meet most often: marketing in general, branding in particular, popular culture, Hollywood, advertising, television, magazines, and, increasingly, blogging.

Grant had lunch with Tom Guarriello (who had previously appeared here)

... innovation is the buzz term of the moment and that it is now a untrustworthy term, over used and under thought.

Tom G. and I fell to thinking, "What if he's right?" What if the problem is not innovation? I think Tom and I decided that the real problem is probably dynamism, specifically that the world has got more various, more changeable, more discontinuous, and therefore harder to stay in sync with. (Tom will forgive me, I hope, if I am misrepresenting him.)

In this view, innovation is a symptom of a larger problem. Innovation matters because dynamism is upon us and the corporation is in danger of falling out of sync.

Read the full posting to find out what else they discussed.

I watched heroic quantities of TV over the holidays. And I was struck by how much comedy now comes from characters who are self interested, self serving, self aggrandizing.

I'm thinking of Charlie Harper played by Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men, and Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother. Both Charlie and Barney are in it for themselves. They have no empathy. They have no principles. They have no shame. They are serene in the knowledge that they are without moral reflex of any kind...and that that's ok. The rest of us a struggling to live a good life (more or less, give or take) and these guys just couldn't care less.

There are British origins to this character, let's call him the unapologetic male. John Cleese's character on Fawlty Towers, Martin Clunes' character on Men Behaving Badly, and Rickey Gervais' character on The Office all made a contribution. It is worth pointing out that these British tokens of the type were just as likely to make us cringe as make us laugh, whereas the American instance is appealing even when appalling.

Read the full posting on The Birth of the New American Male

Assuming these teasers have wet your appetite, add this site to your RSS Reader to read what else happens in the future at This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics

Dean Bruner's Blog

The trail takes a turn and re-appears at the Univ of Virginia, Darden School of Business, where Dean Robert Bruner blogs.

The distinction between puzzles and mysteries was drawn by Gregory Treverton, a national security expert. A puzzle has a “simple, factual answer” and is solved by getting more information. The location of Osama bin Laden is a puzzle. Finding the answer requires increasing the collection of intelligence. A mystery is different—it may have many contingencies and is solved by more analysis rather than more fact-gathering. What will happen to Iraq in 2007 is a mystery. Solving puzzles depends on what we are told; solving mysteries depends on what we hear, on listening well.

Gladwell argues that the financial community needs to make a transition from fact-gathering to true analysis. This is not a new plea. In my book on merger failures I wrote about the disastrous combination of the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads in 1968 (the merged firm went bankrupt in 1970). The classic lament then was that the analysts could tell you how many miles of track lie between New York and Chicago, but not whether the firm would survive. Too many business and financial analysts dwell on fact-gathering and fact-recitation.

Read his full post on Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article on Enron.

This is the final act of a tragedy that began with the optimistic hiring of a Jack Welch lieutenant and soured with the revelation of Nardelli’s pay package and brusque style. The fact that Home Depot’s stock price fell was the last straw for Relational Investors and others who called for the Board of Directors to intervene. Nardelli’s exit package of $210 million will stoke outrage among investors—but that’s grist for another day’s posting.

Business schools have a great deal to say about one’s career progression and climb up to executive power. And they have a great deal to say about keeping one’s position. But business schools are relatively mute about leaving office, or one’s “greatness.”

Read Dean Bruner's assessment of the Roberth Nardelli exit at Home Depot.

The answer to this question is that “fun” is not why I took this job. The fact is that any job has its less appealing aspects—they call it “work” for a reason. But I took this job out of a sense of fulfillment and a sense of mission. It is absolutely fulfilling to help great people get on to accomplish great things. Darden attracts a very high caliber of student, faculty, and staff. To help facilitate their successes is thrilling. The whole community benefits from these wins, the celebration of which gives me deep satisfaction.

My satisfaction is also sustained by a sense of mission. At a very macro level, great business schools help to discover and disseminate best practices into the business profession—this helps to elevate growth and profitability in the private sector globally, thus creating more jobs, paying more taxes, and inventing better products and services. Our graduates serve business and communities in a variety of ways—their leadership has a visible impact in the world. Ultimately, business schools help to increase human welfare.

Read his full posting on "Are you having fun yet?"

And if these snippets were enough to indicate that adding Dean Bruner's blog to your RSS Reader might add some good reading and a sense of fun to your day, please go ahead and do so!

Deb-Tech by Deb Shinder

The trail takes us to the world of technology where Deb Shinder has been writing one of the better newsletters for some time and make a stop at Deb-Tech, one of her blogs.

This blog is a place for readers of my books, print and online articles and WXPnews newsletter to come for more tech-related info, and a place where I can expand on the ideas expressed in those other formats and answer questions posed by readers.

She does her personal blogging at Deep Space 10.


Her website provides a view into all the writing she does.

Who knew that she

is a former police officer/criminal justice instructor who now makes her living as a technical author, trainer and speaker. She has written or contributed to 26 books, published over 200 articles and has been living online, along with her husband Tom (whom she met via the Internet), since the mid-1990s.

Consider adding Deb-Tech to your RSS Reader and keep up with the happenings in the world of technology.

Daily PlanIt

The trail takes us along to the Daily PlanIt where the blogging is done anonymously but consistently and well.

You can read about the Discovery of the day with the most popular articles at the Harvard Business Review or the top 10 New Year's resolutions and how to achieve them.

You can read about important skills running projects

• Recognizing a project that is one of the 20% that require planning beyond the next action.
• Recognizing a task that is too vague, and knowing how to make it specific.
• Recognizing an incoming task, and knowing where to put it in your system.
• Deciding what tools to use to capture ideas and manage projects.

Read the full posting here.

Then consider adding this site to your RSS Reader to keep up with the Daily PlanIt.

The Deuce - Clint Dempsey

The trail takes into the soccer (football) world today. We have not ventured far on this trail before but were able to find that Clint Dempsey has a blog. Thanks to Carolyn for the lead.

Who is Clint? Who is Carolyn?

Well, Clint is only one of the more promising US Men's National Team players. He scored the one legitimate goal for the USA in the 2006 World Cup. We were fortunate to see him play frequently for the New England Revolution.


Oh, and Carolyn happens to be my daughter, shown here with her hero. The picture was taken in April, 2006 at a meet the players event for season ticket holders. Needless to say, Carolyn was very excited to accompany me.

Her smile has changed somewhat to a frown on hearing that Clint will be going to the Premier League for a now record MLS transfer fee.

Congratulations, Clint!

This picture is now increasing in value Carolyn!

Check out Clint's site for a picture of his fiance, for a video highlight reel of his goals scored, for audio clips of his singing/rapping, and for updates on what he is doing.

Sensei and Sensibility

The trail today takes us to NYC where an unidentified woman writes

At least four times in the course of the class, these flowers shifted and changed like pieces of glass falling into different patterns when the wheel of a kaleidoscope is turned. It is always fun, at the end of every class, to see the range of arrangements that students have created. We choose from the same materials, after all. This week, I saw a range and different possibilities within my own flowers and that was astounding.

I learned a lot in this lesson. For starters, “boring” is just a piece of information. I chose to see it, hear it and press on. I’m so glad I did! Once I weighed in with “boring,” the class—and the learning--really took off.

Read the full posting here and don't be bored!

Upon seeing some Christmas trees already being discarded on 12/26/06 she writes:

back to the trees . . . . I was saddened to see them on the street, abandoned, their glory done. If they are recycled, that would help. They would still be thrown away—by someone, but, with the changed form, the tree would still be useful.

Recycling doesn’t pain me in the way that planned obsolescence does. I don’t like throwing away something that is “still good.” I really don’t like to see others do it either. Maybe it’s the influence of the frugal Iowa upbringing—or knowing that resources are finite. In any case, there’s some Ben Franklin “waste not, want not” feeling here.

Read the full posting here.

With a gift for some neighborhood birds, she writes

I haven’t been to the neighborhood park in weeks, but now I have a purpose. I’ll hang the seedcake and see what birds are present. This little adventure is in the “simple pleasures” category and I’m looking forward to it!

Though there was no list of ingredients, black-oil sunflower seeds are prominently visible in the cake. These seeds, in most locations, are said to be the best all-around attractant to birds. They have a high meat-to-shell ratio; they are high in fat; and their small size and thin shell make it easy for small birds to handle and crack them.

Read her full posting here.

Consider adding this site to your RSS Reader. I will. Her about page has a wonderful picture but no information, name, likes, dislikes, etc. For someone with such sensibilities as have been written about (see above), there is now a desire to know more about this person.

Who is she?

Dipping into the past

A year ago this week, we highlighted Marianne Powers at Doing the right thing. She is still writing and doing the right thing one year later!

On the trail, we found Robert Brady writing at Pureland Mountain. Robert is still writing almost daily from Japan.

Also on the trail, we found Sherry Chandler down in Kentucky writing about poetry. She is still writing regularly.

A year ago today we found David Warlick writing at 2 Cents Worth. David has continued to write about using technology appropriately in the classroom environment.


Keep it up Marianne, Sherry, Robert, and David!

Happy New Year 2007

jonny baker blog

The trail takes us to England today to visit with Jonny Baker. Jonny writes:

i realise that i haven't blogged about kalle lasn's design anarchy either. this is a huge fat book that i think is amazing. it condenses many of the themes of adbusters over the years into one huge volume. it's available from somewhere like magma. my favourite ever adbusters issue was no 37 called design anarchy and seems to have been the inspiration for the book.

read his full posting here.

I like his 2006 Baker's Mosaic.

He answers the 5 Things Meme

He is leading a special worship session outside of London

In this week (half term for some), Jonny Baker looks at how churches can develop a culture of creativity, especially arts & media, and how to make the traditions of worship live again. Jonny works for Church Mission Society, developing and supporting mission and new ways of being church. He is part of ‘Grace’, an alternative worship community in St. Mary’s, West London.

read the full posting here.

These tidbits should entice you to add Jonny Baker's Blog to your RSS Reader of choice!

The Post Money Value

Rick's Rants or A VC Loonie with a Toonie.

Rick Segal writes at The Post Money Value highlighting the longest signature file ever found.

He writes on expense policy:

The lesson for you in start up land is set tone early. People will normally do the right thing. If the whole culture/tone is do the right thing, those people that are inclined to pick up the tab, have the shrimp cocktail, etc, will stop or will move on because the rest of the team will reject them as an anti-body.

It's funny how when you are paying, you bring a sandwich from home; when you're not, you'll have the soup, Caesar salad, salmon and a double espresso. If you can break this habit, set the tone of a sandwich, you'll be amazed at how little you will have to worry about this stuff. People are generally good.

Read the full post here.

From his 2006 wrap-up, he writes:

While on the road with Shel Israel, I was able to sit back an enjoy watching, up close and personal, the spotlight on Shel when it came to blogging and passion about one's topic. In three separate events, I was not important, rather blogging and the blogging book author was. It was great. All over Europe blogging, Web 2.0, Social Media and all the stuff was taking off. Watching people hungry for knowledge combined with somebody eager to share was a blast. I've always told people that the key to success is to hire/hang around people smarter then you. Shel is working on a book called "Global Neighborhoods" and is doing it out in the open, more or less, on his blog. I'd encourage all of you who blog, hang out on/in the Internet to head over to his blog and give him feedback on the various proposals he has posted. Good luck with the book, Shel.

Read his full posting here.

Assuming you like what you see with these teasers, add Rick's site to your RSS Reader and keep in touch!

8 Wishes - Paul Sanchez

Paul Sanchez has a BHAG! Actually 8 of them. And he is running out of time (self-imposed) to get these 8 accomplishments by January 10, 2007.

What's a BHAG?

A Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

The cause is worthy, the major objective is to raise $1 million dollars

for children with learning disabilities and dyslexia through the Dyslexia Awareness Resource Center. The DARC will award $10,000 scholarships to 100 kids across the United States.

Since this is December 28th, December 29th for most of you reading this (or even later!). There are two things you can take immediate action to help him with.

1. contribute to the cause
2. visit his web site

Good luck Paul!

Visit Paul's website. Contribute via the ChipIn button.

Thanks to Phil Gerbyshak for helping to tell Paul's story.

Thanks to Seth and others on the Z-List

Welcome to all!

The Hitchhikers Guide has been around since March 2005 exploring "the long tail"

Well over 300 blogs have been "hiked" and a trail report has been written about them. You can cruise through the archives.

For the record, the links on the z-list from 37Days through Joyful Jubilant Learning come directly from my blogroll. I added more links in two other postings to extend the listing but these additions were not as neatly presented and I assume thereby not replicated. See neatness does count!

My thanks to Seth Godin and the others who participated in the z-list meme.

PS - The Hitchhiker Team is looking to expand. The trail is long, time is short. There are so many blogs to find and write about, if this suits your interest, and you have some time to spare, let me know.

Merry Christmas

Via signbot via The Generator Blog which was found by the Hitchhiker Team.

The long and short of the list

There is the z-list meme making it way around. I had my hand in it three times. Once here, the second here and the third here.

The third listing is the longer of the three.

If you are ever short of things to do and want to explore simply by following links, this would be a good list to use.

Long live the long tail!

Creative Think
Soloride
Movie Marketing Madness
Blog Till You Drop!
Get Shouty!
One Reader at a Time
100 Bloggers
Critical Fluff
The New PR
Own Your Brand!
OTOInsights
bizandbuzz
Work, in Plain English
Buzz Canuck
New Millenium PR
Pardon My French
The Instigator Blog
AENDirect
Diva Marketing
Marketing Hipster
The Marketing Minute
Funny Business
The Frager Factor
Mindblob
OrbitNow!
Open The Dialogue
Word Sell
Note to CMO:
That’s Great Marketing!
Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Andy Nulman
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
MapleLeaf 2.0
Darren Barefoot
Two Hat Marketing
The Engaging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Drew’s Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
Conversation Agent
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw Marketing
Scott Burkett’s Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Carpe Factum
Steve’s 2 Cents
Simplicity
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Make it Great!
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
Urban Jacksonville
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly
Jeremy Latham’s Blog
SMogger Social Media Blog
Masey.com

37 Days
A Clear Eye
Alex Halavais
Blog Brothers

Brand Autopsy
Brand Soul
Creating Passionate Users
Crossroads Dispatches
Doc Searls

Drawn
eHub
FAST Company
gapingvoid
gillianic tendencies

Good Experience
Hitchhikers Guide to the Blogosphere
Hobopoet
How to Save the World
Josh Hallett

Joy of Six
Learned on Women
Listics
Make it Great
my topography

New Charm School
Occupational Adventure
Orbit Now
Pause
PureLand Mountain

Seth Godin
Simplicity
Songs of Experience
Talking Story
Time Goes By

Tom Peters

Tomorrow Today
WonderBranding
World Changing

Tertiary Education

Joyful Jubilant Learning

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/

http://grasshopperfactory.com/cbc

http://amediacirc.us/

http://www.podcastconsultant.net/

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/

http://www.bryper.com/

http://www.comedy4cast.com/

http://www.henryjenkins.org/

http://conversationbase.com/blog

http://profectio.com/forde

http://www.dailyvodcasts.com

http://www.dembot.com/index.xml

http://johnherman.org//theeye/

http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/onfacblog.htm

http://gurubbq.com/

http://www.jasonpettus.com/inthegrid/

http://www.instigatorblog.com

http://www.itsapurlman.com

http://www.sooz.com

http://mattgriffin.wordpress.com

http://blog.network2.tv

http://www.newcommroad.com

http://offonatangent.blogspot.com

http://peacetalking.wordpress.com

http://podcamp.wordpress.com

http://podonomics.com/

http://www.scriggity.com

http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/

http://stevegarfield.blogs.com/videoblog/

http://blog.myspace.com/teachingforthefuture

http://www.demop.com/thetedrap/

http://www.thicketblog.com/

http://www.twistimage.com/blog/

http://www.uie.com/brainsparks

http://www.2020hindsight.org

http://37days.typepad.com/37days/

http://800ceoread.com/blog/

http://alittleredhen.typepad.com/a_little_red_hen/

http://www.sandboxwisdom.com/sandbox_wisdom/

http://spaceblog.xprize.org

http://www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/

http://bardseyeviewblog.blogspot.com

http://sixdisciplines.blogspot.com

http://blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com

http://www.thegeminiweb.com/babyboomer

http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/

http://www.bioteams.com/

http://blog.changethis.com/changethis_newsletter/

http://37days.typepad.com/thecircleproject/

http://www.ongenius.com/blog

http://www.commonblog.com

http://www.converstations.com/

http://www.adriansavage.com/blog

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/

http://blog.creativethink.com/

http://evelynrodriguez.typepad.com/crossroads_dispatches/

http://www.notsalmon.com/blog.php

http://geoffmoore.blogs.com/

http://www.dervala.net/index.xml

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/

http://www.emilychang.com/go/ehub/

http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/

http://everythingsfne.blogspot.com/index.html

http://WWW.fashion-incubator.com/mt/

http://fractaliathebook.blogspot.com

http://www.gunson.ca/blog/

http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/

http://hobopoet.blogspot.com/

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/

http://smallfarms.typepad.com/small_farms/

http://joyofsix.typepad.com/joyofsix/

http://robinwolaner.typepad.com/keep_on_growing/

http://katry.blogspot.com

http://blog.learnedonwomen.com/learned_on_women/

http://limericksavant.blogspot.com

http://www.lipsticking.com/

http://www.maryschmidt.com

http://mytopography.com

http://www.robertfulghum.com

http://curtrosengren.typepad.com/occupationaladventure/

http://www.onewebday.org

http://OrangePolitics.org

http://www.patentlysilly.com

http://37days.typepad.com/pattidigh/

http://www.paulgraham.com/

http://www.jorydesjardins.com/pause/

http://pureland.blogspot.com

http://qualityg.blogspot.com

http://www.reellifewisdom.com

http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com

http://richardsona.squarespace.com/main/

http://www.rightreality.com

http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/

http://sanderssays.typepad.com/sanders_says/

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/

http://www.smartmobs.com/

http://www.boston.com/news/local/startsandstops/blog/

http://susansenator.com/blog/index.html

http://thisfish.ivillage.com/love/

http://ronnibennett.typepad.com/weblog/

http://www.teachmeteamwork.com/teachmeteamwork/

http://www.tompeters.com

http://underthepalms.blogspot.com/index.html

http://www.vantagepoints.net/blogs/index.asp

http://brand.blogs.com/mantra/

http://improvwisdomblog.blogspot.com

http://michelemiller.blogs.com/marketing_to_women/

http://hotzone.yahoo.com/

Merry Christmas to all!

Deep Fun - Bernie DeKoven

The trail takes a funny turn today and makes new connections. Checked in with Sandra to see her current posting and found Bernie. Clicked through to Bernie's site and found he wrote about Seymour Papert. I wrote about Seymour on Sunday.

Bernie writes

O, it succeeded, the Power Pad did, in its way, but not in its time. And it made me honestly contemplate the possibility that maybe it's not so bad, actually, not such a minor achievement, in fact, not something one would poo-poo, the Power Pad, and all those things and people before their time, who, despite financial failures, have made this time possible.

Read his full posting to find out how this was connected to Dance-Dance-Revolution.

Bernie writes

The Hoseball, Son of Schmertlz, came into being as a direct result of the propinquitous ubiquity of both knee-high and thigh-high hosiery. A 2-3-sock sockball, stuffed into the toe of these hose forms, creates a thing to fling of such stretchy spinworthiness that it is oft likened to a weapon of soft, but nonetheless intimidating attribute. A well-flung hoseball, trailed spectacularly by its gauzy, wobbly, hose-formed tail, beckons every eye on the playground.

With family time in the warmer than normal New England area, hoseball might be something to try. Check out the full posting.

Consider adding Bernie's site to your RSS Reader of choice, or subscribe to one of his newsletters to keep up with the fun he is having and join in making some yourself!

Biz Plan Hacks

The trail today takes to some Biz Plan Hacks.

Knowing where to draw the line is wisdom they say. From where I sit anyone who has accomplished great things has achieved the results at a price. Their achievements were paid for with the currency of dedication and consistency. They never quit, they learned from their mistakes and made an adjustment to their approach and focused on results. They learned the difference between goals and results ...

Read the full post here.

Getting help with your website design or making changes to your site that need some programming help is easier than you might think. Thanks to Anita Campbell for pointing to 99 Tips for Poor Web Startups, I like tip 55 because it links to a couple of good resources and ideas to help you modify your website or make a design change.

Read the full post here.

Listen to the podcast: 6 Step Startup Plan for a Business

If these samples are enough to catch and hold your interest, then you should add this site to your RSS Reader and keep up with the Biz Plan Hacks with Greg Belanko-Dickson.



Disclosure - Greg is also a compatriot and member of the Joyful Jubilant Learning network. Aside from that fact, the Hitchhiker Team still would have written about this site. It meets all the requirements of quality along the long tail.

Creative Think Blog

The trail takes a creative turn today stopping by Roger van Oech writing on his blog at Creative Think.

Roger writes:

Heraclitus felt that consulting our own knowledge and intuition is a wonderful way to gain insight. Unfortunately, some of us never learned this lesson. Much of our educational system is an elaborate game of "guess what the teacher is thinking," and we come to believe that the best ideas are in someone else's head rather than our own. Heraclitus reminds us that there are good ideas within ourselves if we are willing to dig deeply enough.

Read the full posting on Heraclitus.

Roger writes:

One of my favorites is "Speed-Reducing Art" by John Glassie (subscription required). It's about using tromp l'oeil art to reduce traffic speeds at busy intersections. (Tromp l'oeil is the art of visual deception; check out my earlier posts on tromp l'oeil art "Fooling the Eye" and "More Eye-Foolery.")

According to Glassie,

"Public art projects are usually intended to beautify. But artwork commissioned this summer by the city of Cambridge, Mass., has a more utilitarian goal: reducing traffic speeds at a busy intersection."

A particularly busy intersection is at Walden Street and Vassal Lane; 6,000 cars pass through it every day. One Cambridge citizen, Susanne Rasmussen, had been aware that neighborhood street murals in Portland, Oregon had the unintended consequence of slowing traffic down. A light bulb went off in Susanne's head, "Why not experiment with deliberately putting murals on the street to slow the traffic."

Read the full posting on speed reducing art.

And if you are looking for a last minute gift, but don't mind delvering after Christmas, then check out his Ball of Whacks!

Benjamin Bach & Associates

The Hitchhikers are on the road today, outside of Toronto, and checking out some real estate along the way.

Benjamin Bach describes himself:

Hi! I’m a Realtor in Kitchener-Waterloo, a growing center of industry an hour from Toronto. I own a business building wealth for our clients through smart real estate investments. I’m devoted to improving myself, both personally and professionally, so that I can provide the highest level of service to everyone I meet. I love to hear from my readers; please comment on the blogs you find interesting, and don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions about buying a home, selling your home, or starting an investment portfolio. We primarily work in Waterloo region and Wellington region, but we’re licensed in the whole province of Ontario and have worked with clients from Toronto (buying both locally and in Toronto), Brantford and London. My goal is to help thousands of people build their wealth through smart Real Estate investments, and I’d love to help you do just that.

Check out his About page

Posts that might be of interest

• Ten questions to ask your realtor
• Preparing your home to sell fast
• How much does $70,000 cost

Benjamin Bach writes:

Today I have the great pleasure of speaking with Keith Ferrazzi, best selling author of Never Eat Alone (and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationships at a Time). Keith’s ideas have shaped the way I’ve gone about building relationships in my community. In business, your network is your net worth, and Keith is the leading expert on building a powerful network that helps everyone it touches.

Read the full interview here.

For these and other matters of real estate, check out Benjamin's blog. This is not like yesterday's reel wisdom, this is real money!

Reel Life Wisdom

Daily life provides an opportunity for using really good quotes. There are lots of quote services around. This blog focuses the quotes they get on those from the movies, hence the Reel Life Wisdom.

Nice concept!

Good quotes!

Check out

• Proactive - what you make of it
• Teens - she'll outgrow it
• Values - every civilization finds its own

and many more... a real treasure trove of reel wisdom!

Brazen Careerist - Penelope Trunk

I had just quoted from Penelope yesterday on her article about time management. I thought the name sounded familiar. Where had I seen it? Oh, well. Of course, it was sitting in my pending queue for things to write about here!

She writes:

When I was in couples therapy with my husband, I nearly died trying to force myself to listen to his ideas when I thought mine were better. But I realized that I had poor listening skills, and by dealing with my listening skills at home, I improved my listening skills at work.

We can learn how to build relationships at work by paying attention to research about how to build them at home.

For example, The Economist reports that men overestimate how attracted women are to them, and women underestimate how interested men are. This research comes from an article in Evolution and Human Behavior, and the conclusion is that the poor estimating is actually good for evolution, because men don’t miss opportunities to spread their DNA, and women make sure to mate with someone who will stick around.

Read the full post here.

She writes about getting references:

This rule of thumb sounds right to me. When I was hiring, if I called for a reference and the person sounded like they were reading a canned speech I discounted the whole thing and called another person on the list. I was always hunting for someone with candor.

Read her full posting here.

I would recommend add Penelope's blog to your RSS Reader.

Convergence Culture Consortium

The MIT Convergence Culture Consortium, a blog discussion around current topics like:

Fair Use

User generated content

Change sometimes takes time

Good topics, good writing, good conversations!

Add this site to your RSS Reader!

Migrated to Blogger Beta today

So far so good. My Qumana Editor is balking at posting but otherwise things seem to be working fine from my side.

If you see any problems or have any difficulty viewing the blog, please let me know!

Full Circle Interaction Blog

Nancy White writes at Full Circle Online Interaction Blog.

I stumbled tonight on to Tom Haskin's blog, growing changing learning creating. When I found a post on Community Healing, I was hooked. Tom is also writing a lot about collaboration, which I've also been focusing on lately.

By the way Jim Benson has a great post looking at very specific collaboration practices in his work team. I appreciate these kinds of posts because they help me examine the more conceptual stuff in a contextual, pragmatic way. Thanks, Jim. I asked him in comments how some of those practices might look at the community and network collaboration levels.

Posting link.

Julie Leung reminds us that the Moose is on the Loose again...Who can resist a moose with an iPod.... Northern Voice, the fun, down home blogging conference returns for it's third run in Vancouver, BC, Febrary 23 and 24. This time they are moving to larger digs at UBC. The speaker submission date is passed, but registration is open. I submitted a proposal and promptly forgot what I submitted. Duh. I am ripe to be turned down for such flakiness. But that doesn't matter. This is one of the few conferences I'd go to no matter what. That's saying a lot from cheapie me.

Read the full posting here.

I've tried to become more attentive to web accessibility issues over the years. My main website is not too bad, but today I was pointed to another tool to test colors, Juicy Studio: Colour Contrast Analyser Firefox Extension and my blog fails miserably. Time to change.

Read the full posting here.

Add this site to your RSS Reader of choice.


Technorati Tags : Nancy+White, collaboration, interaction, full+circle, hitchhikers, hike, trail

Core77 - Design blog

A fellow Hitchhiker pointed this site out to me via an article he found titled "Those Who Can Teach". The article was a good read. The site offered a blog. I followed the link and arrived here.

There are Contributors in three categories: Cloggers, Moderators, and Authors. The listing is impressive.

Their postings are equally impressive and varied, just what you would expect from a design site.

77 Gifts for Under $77

Spain yields new kid's phone

Unfortunately, although technically approved, some consumer associations are calling the device an "irresponsibility at educative and sanitary levels."

Here, here!

We all scream

I have not been on the design trail for sometime and this site makes me want to go do more exploring within. Oh, yea, and sometime after I have had enough, I'll go look for more.

Come along. Put this site into your RSS Reader of choice!



Technorati Tags : design, group, hitchhikers, trail, kids+phones, irresponsible

ConnecTips

 

100 Connected Women is a community of women who are interested and willing to share ideas, gadgets, how-tos. It is not a tutorial or self-help book. It is women helping their girlfriends, sisters, colleagues to stay connected and relevant in this new Connected Age.  The focus on this site is on web based tools, preferably free ones, that are fun and easy to use that can help you to connect to other people, organize meetings or parties, track stories or issues.  I hope it will be a lively place where we are all posting information and commenting to improve our collective experience.

There are posts on

what to read? an intro to shelfari

getting started blogging with Wordpress

a quick explanation of evite

Check out ConnecTips!

 

Technorati Tags : ConnecTips, tools, free+ones, 100Bloggers, women

 

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Wired Home Weblog

Do you have wires in your house?

What house doesn't have wires?

You might want to see this site. Then help you make sense of it all.

And how do they do that?

They have info on

older gamers - a magazine just for you

a magic toaster

the Christmas Tree gun

and many more. Click on over and see for yourself!

Swift 2 Feet

Swift 2 Feet is a blog with reviews of running shoes by the major brands. A sample of recent postings:

 

Asics Gel 2120

Brooks Beast '07

Nike+ Air Equalon

New Balance 1024

New Balance 755

Adidas ClimaCool Rotterdam IV

Reebok Premier Trinity KFS

Avia Tuned Trainer

Adidas Adistar Cushion 4

Adidas Supernova GCS 9

As they say, if the shoe fits, wear it.

Check out Swift 2 Feet to keep up with current shoe releases.

 

Technorati Tags : shoes, reviews, run, running, blog

 

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Boomer Marketing - Mary Brown

Finally an anti-aging skin care message that doesn’t take itself seriously! Starting with an initial warning on the Reversa web site “The content of this site may offend women under 35,” you know you are in for some fun. Follow along on the adventures of a stylish 40-something woman as she is visited by various plumber and pastry chef hunks. All a result of using Reversa, of course.

From Mary Brown writing at Boomer Marketing. Read the full posting here.

 

Tom Peters provided a recent plug for the new book, Boom. This sounds like a book to add to my reading list.

Last night was open house at my daughter’s middle school. Dozens of us forty- and fifty-something parents dutifully sat through each teacher’s orientation. By the fifth presentation, the majority of us were sufficiently dumbstruck by the near total replacement of hardcopy communication tools with online solutions.

Each teacher had a blog site where students could check class schedules, daily curriculum covered, homework assignments and send comments or questions. Grades would no longer be dispensed quarterly through the mail. Instead you could check your child’s progress up to the day via a private link on the school’s site.

This would hearten David Warlick, Will Richardson and others on the educational web 2.0 campaign. Read the full posting by Mary here.

 

You should consider adding this site to your RSS Reader of choice

 

 

Technorati Tags : boomers, marketing, hitchhikers, trail, Tom+Peters

 

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Smack in the face awakening

I am suddenly hit smack in the face with the one thing about love that truly defines love…giving love to someone in the way THEY want to receive it, not the way YOU want to give it.

Have you been smacked in the face by this awakening? If you have children and haven't, guess what? Someday, I expect that you will.

 

Anne Leedom writes this in the current Editorial at Parenting Bookmark

 

She writes in the About section:

ParentingBookmark.com is designed to promote character education and strong social and behavior skills in children. We offer information for parents and teachers on many topics, including bullying, anger management, sibling rivalry, and peacefulness. In addition, we offer expertise on subjects that will be part of a child’s development of a healthy self, including healthy eating, positive interaction with one’s community and environment, special challenges, and important information on how kids are affected by the media. We also offer books and products for parents, teachers and kids, all designed to strengthen character and self esteem in kids.

The trail from a Boston Globe article lead me to Karen Carlsson-Paige and ultimately to Parenting Bookmark.

 

If you have children, you will want to visit this page; maybe even bookmark it to come back often!

 

 

Technorati Tags : parenting, children, growth, education, character, social, behavior, skills

 

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From the archives

Dipping into the archives from November 2005 I find

Walk this way - japee

is still posting pictures and blogging from Charleston, South Carolina

Give this site a visit!