Scott Berkun's Blog, page 84

What are you avoiding?

I'm avoiding answering this question.

(Mostly I'm trying out a cool Automattic service, called Plinky).

You can see how other people answered this question here.

Rules to live by

Buster Benson, the super creative guy who made 750words (helps you write), Locavore (helps you eat), 8:36pm project (helps you remember), co-founded the arts collective McLeod Residence, and blogs here gave me this morning's inspiration.

From his site I found these great rules to live by:

You must not dilly-dally.You must be your word.You must have good intentions.You must admit to being the maker of meaning.You must not feel sorry for yourself.You must have a vision that you are striving...

Moments: a video you will enjoy

There is a cliche among short videos of trying to make you feel something amazing or wonderous, and I admit when I started watching this one that's exactly what I though. "Oh, here's another one of those videos with short, clever, little moments designed to make me feel something positive and wonderful."  But it was done well enough that I kept watching. And watching. And even though I still thought about the cliche, I liked it more and more until eventually I stopped thinking about the...

Applying Jazz to workplace creativity

Months ago I got a sneak preview of a book on two of my favorite things: the making of music and how teams in the work world function. I'd thought someone should explore crossovers between these worlds and thanks to Adrian Cho, that book now exists. It's called The Jazz Process.

Adrian is clearly a special man with diverse talents – he directs the IJO jazz ensemble, yet also  manages teams of software developers. He's the right guy to take this topic on. The book is finally out now and I...

There is no ground zero mosque

I asked a simple question earlier this week about the issue over the Ground zero mosque.  Keith Oberman, at about 5:45 in, does an excellent job of asking the same questions and giving answers.

I don't agree with everything he says, but I sure agree with the core points.

The four minute presentation

We like to think we're super cool in the present, with faith the rate of change we deal with is unlike anything ever in history.

Surely our lightening talks and TED talks, with high speed pacing and dense information, must be recent inventions. I even wrote a Forbes article about this most interesting and new trend. But it turns out, as is often the case, the roots of an innovation go back much further than we tend to believe.

Enter the four minute men. A group of people who worked for the...

Pic of day: Universe closed

From a real street sign in NM, via Teresa.

Life and death of great ideas (Idea approval index)

(Originally posted 11/07 . Revised 8/10).

Many leaders talk about progress and change, but overlook simple yet potent indicators for creative action. One simple measure is the idea approval index (IAI).

To get this number simply ask one question:

How many approvals are needed for an employee to deliver on an idea to a customer?

Think it through carefully. In most organizations it's a high number. From committees, to boards, to review meetings, most successful companies create processes that...

Why you fail at writing

My post on how to write a book is a few comments away from hitting the 500 mark. Many of the comments are entertaining and inspiring. Yet some boggle the mind in how they repeat questions I answered in the post.  If you haven't seen that post before, it'd be best to read it first.

One reason people fail at writing is simply they don't know how to read.  When you write a page, you end up having to reread it many times. If you can't read well, you probably can't write well either. It seems...

Ground Zero and the Mosque

I grew up in Queens, NYC, and I know Manhattan pretty well.  The recent headline news about building a Mosque "at" Ground Zero caught my attention and I've followed along.

I'm not here to argue for it or against it – my question is different.

Only recently did I find a map of the potential site (Shown below).

It turns out the mosque would be two blocks away from the northern edge of ground zero. And if if you know NYC at all, one city block can represent an entire planet of different stores...