Scott Berkun's Blog, page 74

Confessions ebook $6.99 today only

O'Reilly is running a special deal, today only. You can get Confessions of a Public Speaker as an ebook for $6.99.

Go to http://oreil.ly/eI8w2x here, and enter this code: DDCPK

If you have the print version but want a copy on your kindle or device, grab it now.

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 20, 2011 13:50

Innovators, imitators and idiots

Nice little nugget from Warren Buffet, quoted in a good piece on Harvard Business about Why smart people do dumb things:

[Charlie] Rose asked the question that scholars, pundits, and plaintiffs attorneys will be debating for years: "Should wise people have known better?" Of course they should have, Buffet replied, but there's a "natural progression" to how good new ideas go badly wrong. He called this progression the "three Is." First come the innovators, who see opportunities that others don't and champion new ideas that create genuine value. Then come the imitators, who copy what the innovators have done. Sometimes they improve on the original idea, often they tarnish it. Last come the idiots, whose avarice undermines the very innovations they are trying to exploit.

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 18, 2011 08:00

Why do arguments become hostile?

When conversations go wrong, there's a moment right before it gets bad that something must have changed. What is it? What causes the transition from civil to adversarial?

I can think of three reasons, but I'm sure there's more:

Someone feels they are not being heard. When we feel we're not being listened to, most of us get louder. And if that doesn't work, we get louder or more hostile, since we are seeking recognition more than anything. A negative feedback loop ensues, where each person tries to be heard by getting louder, causing the other person to do the same.
We confuse our identity with our point of view. An attack on an idea is not an attack on a person, unless that person can't separate the two. Even if someone makes fun of another person's point of view, is that necessarily an attack on their person? It is if they can't separate themselves from their ideas. If I like blue, and you like green, who cares? Is there a name for the line in each of us between opinions we defend personally (abortion), and we don't (favorite color)?
Cultures where walking away, being polite in the face of idiocy, is seen as weak. Arguing with someone who isn't listening doesn't make much sense. The wise thing to do would be to politely leave, but that's often seen as giving in. The result is people won't relent.
There is an unspoken argument. A previous debate has left unexpressed feelings in one party who insists on trying to vent those feelings from some other exchange during the current conversation. This inevitably makes the other person feel like they're not being heard (#1).
There is no trusted mediator. There is always a third party that can be found that is trusted by everyone, who can step in and restore decorum. Without that third party, negative feedback loops can start and there's no one who can step in to end them.

What are other causes?

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 17, 2011 12:10

Quote of the week

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration of fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams random conversation, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul.

If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery- celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: 'it's not where you take from, it's where you take them to."

- Jim Jarmusch's golden rule #5

(Hat tip Darren Geraghty)

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 17, 2011 08:14

Why today is not the future

In The First Decade of the Future is Behind Us by Kyle Munkitrick for Discover magazine, he ask the question, are we in the future yet? He makes some good arguments:

Can we finally admit we live in the future?…Thanks to a combination of 3G internet, a touch-screen interface, and Wikipedia, the smartphone in my front pocket is pretty much the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I can communicate with anyone anywhere at anytime…and then use the same touch-screen device to take a picture, deposit a check, and navigate the subway system. We live in the future, ladies and gentleman.

Having studied the idea of the future, I had two responses:

1. The future is a safe place we never want to believe is now. Something in our psychology likes to long for things. This includes the afterlife, the faith that the next raise will make use happy, or that when we lose 10lbs we'll feel good about ourselves. The better future is a form of projection we need. In the present we need to believe something better awaits. You don't need an iPhone to recognize how amazing the present is. Study the history of civil rights, personal wealth, or opportunity in America, and you'll find much to be amazed about. We take most progress for granted.

2. Technological progress is not social progress. Are there fewer assholes in the world? Is there less greed? Do more people follow the Golden Rule? Technologies focus on a narrow aspect of progress, one we are good at. It's the other kinds of progress that are harder to develop. If the only elements of a better future are improved technologies, prepare to be disappointed. Many things do not change with technology.

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 17, 2011 07:48

All ideas are made of other ideas

If you want ideas, you have to start by breaking existing ideas down into smaller ones. Only then can you see how to build your own.

It's a little mantra you can say: Ideas are made of other ideas.

I wrote about this at length in The Myths of Innovation, and it's also in my Creative Thinking Hacks essay:

[use] the following simple definition: an idea is a combination of other ideas. Say it five times out loud. Say it to your cat. Yell it out you car window at strangers waiting for the bus. Every amazing creative thing you've ever seen, or idea you've ever heard can be broken down into smaller ideas that existed before. An automobile? An engine + wheels. A telephone? Electricity and sound. Reese's peanut butter cups? Peanut butter and chocolate. All great creative ideas, inventions, and theories are comprised of other ideas. Why should you care? Here's why: if you want to be a creator instead of a mere consumer you must see ideas currently in the world as fuel for your mind. You must stop seeing them as objects or functional things: they are combinations of ingredients waiting for reuse.

It's impossible to find any idea that can't be broken down into smaller ideas. Pick a song, an invention, a philosophy… they are all recombinations of other ideas. Sometimes the grandest ideas, once you ditch the romance, are the easiest to dissect into previously existing ideas. Until you can see the fact that all ideas are made of other ideas as an immutable law, you're unlikely to create, since you see ideas in the world as fixed when in truth they are always in motion.

Don't believe me? Look at this (mildly NSFW, hat tip @ario)

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 12, 2011 07:27

Book review: Creative workshop

I've been around for awhile, and have stacks of books claiming to spark design skills and creative thinking. Most end up in the back corner of the shelf, never living up to their promise. I'm impressed, and happy to say, Creative Workshop: 80 challenges to sharpen your design skills, book is a different breed. It's authored by David Sherwin, who runs the Change Order design blog.

It's a beautiful book. There is design love and care on every page.
It's designed for reading and use. It's not a coffee-table book or pretty play thing.
There's a free teacher's guide, to help instructors and managers use the book.
The inspirations aren't just in the book's design (a common failing in design books), but the stories, and challenging exercises even experienced designers can benefit from. It's an easy book to use for team challenges, offsites and to teach old dogs some new things.
It includes exercises from a wide range of kinds of design, which is fun and challenging. Some are print based, others are interactive, or involve urban wayfinding, advertising, web apps, dishware, clothing, you name it. It fulfills the idea of forcing you to stretch your creative muscles.

Highly recommended for people who want to learn by making, and who have some design experience but want to grow and stretch their creative abilities. It'd make for a great team building book, where the entire team picks a challenge and does them together, doing a show and tell of their work each week.

The first 24 pages are available for free on scribd.

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 11, 2011 10:49

Passive/Aggressive management and the Lakers

There's something familiar about Kobe Bryant's description about the style his coach, Phil Jackson uses. As this article explains, his teamates sometimes get upset when Jackson zings players in the media, but Bryant says:

"…when you've been around Phil for as many years as I have, we all understand that he likes coaching publicly," Bryant said. "I think it's important for the new guys to understand that. Ron, Pau, guys that kind of have issues with that, that's how he coaches. It's fine. Just let him do his job and go about your business."

When someone you trust conveys private messages in public, you are being abused. They are enlisting the shame and shock of hearing feedback for the first time in public as a way to to intimidate you into behaving the way they want. It's both insecure and immature. It happens every day in some workplaces and families, where people with less power are constantly surprised and belittled in front of their peers.

It's a weak way for people in power to abuse their influence. They are confusing the fear it creates in other people with respect. Victimizing those around you only makes everyone weaker.

A stronger way for someone in power to communicate is to speak directly and privately. Giving the other person a chance to consider and respond, things denied when messages are expressed for the first time in front of strangers.

See how to survive a bad manager.

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 10, 2011 23:24

An open letter to Amazon.com

Greetings people of Amazon.com:

We've gotten along well. I write books and you help me sell them. Generally I'm fond of you and all you do.

Recently you've done something that makes it hard to sell one of my most popular books, Making Things Happen. You've put the cover for the out of print edition of the book, which had a different name, where the new edition should be.

This looks bad and is confusing for our customers.

It has happen before, and I've complained through my publisher, O'Reilly Media. It was fixed, but returned. Twice. And here we are again. Can we fix this please? I'm embarrassed by it. I assume you are too. It's just an image file, and it can't be hard fix.

And while you are there: I've asked previously for the 46 reviews from the old edition to be moved to the new, as it's the same book, but was told no. If you can move the cover over by accident, can we move those reviews over on purpose, for my and everyone's benefit?

Thanks,

Signed, One of your customers

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 10, 2011 19:19

SCRUM for Weddings?

I once wrote that Everything is Project, and its true. Recently Gregory Heller gave an ignite talk, at Seattle Ignite 12, that takes this idea to the extreme: Scrum Project Management for Weddings.

There's good advice for weddings and all projects, including a telling of the Chickens and Pigs tale.

View more on Scott Berkun's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 05, 2011 22:19