Scott Berkun's Blog, page 98
January 18, 2010
How do you get motivated?
(Note: In a series of posts, now called readers choice, I'll write about whatever people submit and vote for. If you dig this, let me know if the comments, and submit your ideas and votes).
The next top vote getter in the pile with 56 points was How do you get yourself motivated.
I'm going to cheat here, as I wrote a nice tasty essay on this very question:
How to stay motivated – give it a spin. I think you'll like it.
I think "how to stay" is a better question, since I know many people who...
A rant about women
Clay Shirky has a rant up about women and the gender based expectations of behavior. The general theme is about how he's noticed men are typically more self-aggrandizing than women, and that women would be better served if they represented themselves more aggressively.
As Shirky often is, it's a good read. The comments are rough, as folks are responding less to his sentiment (there is an unfair problem that should be fixed) and more to the specifics of his arguments, which, given the title...
January 15, 2010
Wants vs. Beliefs
A funny thing about the human mind is we tend to believe what we want to believe. We are prone to allowing what we want to have happen distort our reasoning on how likely it is to happen.
My recent post on the future of UI will be boring has disappointed some. They think I want the future to boring because I predict it will be so.
This is wrong. I'd love new and better things as much as anyone.
However, having studied the history of change and progress I know how many factors are involved for...
The future of UI will be boring
In an interesting post on daring fireball, Gruber rhetorically asks:
Our "desktop" computers' human interfaces haven't fundamentally changed since 1984 — keyboard and mouse/trackpad for input, overlapping draggable resizable windows on-screen, and a hierarchical file system where you create and manage "document files". Have you ever sat back, scratched your chin, and wondered when the computer industry will break free of these current interfaces — which can be a hassle even for experts, and...
January 14, 2010
Book review: The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
The purpose of a story is to be an axe that breaks up the ice within us
-Franz Kafka
I have a hard time reading fiction because often writers try way too hard to make their fiction seem real, or love their words so much they get in the way of telling the story. I'm more of a Hemingway fan (particularly Old Man and The Sea) fan than, say, Updike. I prefer Beckett to Neil Simon. I find potency and empowerment in seemingly dark tales, because when things are really dark, it's easier to...
Need a graphic designer for small project
I have a big, chart heavy report on research I did into how people prepare to give presentations. Problem is the charts are auto-generated and ugly. I mean hit by every ugly stick imaginable ugly.
I need a designer to grab the jpegs of the charts and basically de-uglify them. Given my lame Photoshop skills, it would take me a few hours to do, but an experienced designer could probably do it in half an hour.
I'm happy to pay $100 for someone to do it.
You'll also get nice exposure here on the...
January 13, 2010
Speaking at PMI Congress, Feb. in Melbourne
Next month I'll be giving the keynote talk at the 2010 PMI Global Congress, in one of my favorite cities in the world, Melbourne Australia.
From the press release:
Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading professional membership organisation for project managers, announced best-selling author and renowned presenter Scott Berkun as the keynote speaker for PMI® Global Congress 2010—Asia Pacific. PMI's Global Congress allows experts and professionals at...
How to create great work environments
(Note: In a series of posts, now called readers choice, I'll write about whatever people submit and vote for. If you dig this, let me know if the comments, and submit your ideas and votes).
The actual question submitted was:
How to create environments that encourage people to make mistakes and learn from them?
This is easy. It goes on every day in every decent classroom around the world.
What this question is really asking is how can the person in charge create an atmosphere where learning is...
January 12, 2010
Live, Free webcast: Next Tues, on speaking
This should be fun – the folks at creativetechs have a fantastic tech setup for webcasts which promises to be higher quality than most. If you saw the last webcast and enjoyed it, please help spread the word.
You can tune in from anywhere in the world, or if you're in Seattle come on down and watch live.
If you've got something to say—and want people to listen—this is for you...
How great writers work
Nice little compilation article on 25 famous writers and their daily work rituals. Since I've been writing full time I've read many books about writing, about how writer's work, and even writer's writing about how they write. But beware: many of the facts listed in links and books about writers are not sourced, so take them with a grain of salt or two. The list particular list seems biased towards people with very regular routines, or people who reported having very regular routines...
