Scott Berkun's Blog, page 100

The secret about innovation secrets

The word secret runs rampant not only in business magazines, but also in self-help books. To our general disappointment, often the tips and advice described aren't secrets, and never were, as no one, not even the people mentioned in the articles, ever really tried to keep these facts 'secret' from anyone.

The word secret makes the boring sound fun.  Doing laundry is pretty boring, but secret laundry almost sounds interesting. The word secret promises short-cuts, tricks, or things people don't ...

Best things of 2009

Went through my list of stuff acquired this year. Turns out I read a lot of books.

Here's the best (purchasable) things I found in 2009:

Thoughtless acts, by Jane Fulton Suri – This is a great book for any design, or creative thinkers out there. Published in 2005, I read it back then, put it a stack of books, and only rediscovered it this year. It's a collection of photos of objects redesigned by ordinary people to serve purposes beyond what the designer expected.

Brain Rules – I've read many...

Everything is a project, even this

As often happens in life, when I meet people at a party or some work thing and they ask what I do, I tell them I write books. They ask what kind of books, and when I mention I wrote a book about project management they get all condescending. Why would you write a book about something as boring as project management? They ask.

To which, I often say.  Everything is a project.

And they say, what?

And I say, again, Everything is a project.

How did you get to this party? I ask. Well, that's a...

Wednesday linfest

Here are this week's links:

Reverse ignite – In a variation of powerpoint karaoke, where people are forced to present with someone else's slides, Reverse ignite does it with ignite format presentations.Bike friendlyiest city in the world – Copenhagen – Well done little video about how they redesigned Copenhagen with bikes taking priority. Amazing to watch. I was there this year and it's amazing to walk on streets with more bikes than cars.New Interview with David Simon, of the Wire – Won't...

Speaking in Portland, Jan 6 & 7

I'll be in Portland in a few weeks, early in 2010. Speaking at the Art Institute, hosted by CHIFOO, on Wed January 6th, at 7pm, about Confessions of  a Public Speaker. Bring your toughest questions and I'll answer 'em.

It's open to the public, but non members have to pay $5 to get in.

I'll also be doing a book signing, and possibly speaking for a bit, on Thursday Jan 7th at Powells bookstore, 7pm.

And I'll likely be on TV the morning of the 6th in Portland, on ABC's AM Northwest show.

What my office looks like right now

In a desperate fit of end of year holiday boredom, as I'm self employed and don't quite long for these weeks off as I used to, I decided it's time to fix up my office.

If I'm actively writing a book, over time my research methods create piles of books all over the place. I did heavy research for Confessions, and there were papers, books, journals, and articles just about everywhere.

When a book is done, there are several weeks of promotion, and it's only now, about 8 weeks in, that I finally...

Quote of the month

I have a huge quote file I've been keeping since 1990, and it's about 300 single spaced pages of quotes I've collected over the years. I think the practice of typing these things in is good for writing. Unable to sleep tonight I stumbled through the file, and found this one.

"In the old testament and in the Jewish Interpretive and mystical texts, there is an emphasis on the importance of the spoken word. Speaking is the cause, not the antithesis, of an event or action. The words of the...

Wednesday linkfest

Here are this week's links:

College student brings typewriter to lecture hall – Seems legit and not staged – the professor eventually asks him to stop.A better rating system – 5 point scales are the standard on yelp, amazon and elsewhere. Interesting to think if there's a better way to do this.  My biggest gripe is they rarely show the distribution – some things are love/hate in nature. I might see a film or read a book that was highly polarized, but had a 3 average.NYC subway filled with...

Buy nothing for Christmas

I rarely follow it 100%, but I do believe what people want for Christmas, or as gifts in general, are not consumer objects, but experiences and acts that require the giving of our time, not our money.

Here's my post from last year about some rules I made up for gifts:

So this year I made two rules:

To buy only experiences. Tickets to plays, events, massages, meals, things that they'll experience and own as a memory instead of as a thing. Perhaps I can baby or pet sit for friends, gifts that...

The importance of what you say

My latest essay for Forbes.com is now up – it's called the importance of what you say.

Many are surprised to learn that for centuries many of the great writers in history, from Emerson to Mark Twain to Peter Drucker, made much of their incomes not from their ideas alone, but from the interest people had in hearing them talk about those ideas in person. A different level of understanding comes from seeing someone explain his ideas to you, before your own eyes, in real time. You can't shake...