Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 3

My newest book, Limit Your Greed, is now available!

and I’m excited, proud, and nervous.

I’m excited both because it’s a new book and because I can finally talk about it.  Yes, this is the project I mentioned a while back.  It’s now finally here, and it is a truly lovely hardback.  Bill Catchings and I wrote it, and our team at Principled Technologies (PT) designed it. 

Click an image to see a larger version. 

For now, you can order the hardback only via the LYG site; as of this writing, the ordering page isn't even live.  Soon, you’ll be able to buy it via Amazon as well.  Right now, Amazon shows us as having one for sale, but that's only because we haven't yet correctly set up the ordering page.  I'll post an update in this blog as we fix these problems. 

I’m proud because I think this book does a good job of conveying a lot of potentially powerful ideas in a very compact space.  Both Bill and I dislike business books that are full of padding, so we tried to keep the text crisp and tight.  I’m also proud because this is not a book full of untested theories.  The principles in it are the ones by which we’ve run our main business, Principled Technologies, for 15 years.  PT is proof that a business can be profitable while still valuing people and principles over profit. 

I’m nervous on many fronts.  Like all new books, I’ve lived with this for a long time, so having it out in the world is always in some ways anticlimactic.  That’s particularly true in this case, because we’ve been working on this book for about six years and talking about it for even longer.  In addition, to avoid further delays--it takes time to sell a book--we chose to have our LYG company publish the volume.  This approach let us create a much nicer physical object than almost any publisher would have printed, and it let us deliver exactly the length we wanted without padding; it is a short volume.  It opens us, however, to all sorts of criticisms common to self-publishing endeavors.  It also means we could easily lose money on the book--and I’m accustomed to being paid by my publisher. 

What matters most about this book, though, is not my feelings.  What really counts is what this book might, just might be able to do:  help make the world better.  Our goal was to show that we could all approach businesses differently, create better businesses, and in the process build a better world.  We genuinely believe that is possible. 

To do this, though, we need your help.  Buy the book.  Read it.  Start conversations about ways that businesses could be better and do more to help both their employees and the world at large.  Even if you disagree with our specific ideas, talk about where you think we’re wrong.  Having the conversations is what matters, because from those conversations, change could come. 

We started promoting this idea in April with the shirts you can also buy at lyg.org.  Now, with the publication of Limit Your Greed, we hope to take a big step forward.

As naive and idealistic as it may sound, we firmly believe in the power of ideas to change the world, to make it better.  We hope the ideas in this book lead to better businesses and a better world. 

As we say on LYG, buy a book (or a shirt).  Start a conversation.  Change the world.

Merry Christmas

If this is a holiday you celebrate, I hope it was a good one.

If it was just another Monday, I still hope it was a good one.

I enjoy this holiday and our traditions around it. 

Let's all take care of each other in the year ahead.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle exceeded my expectations

I walked into the theater expecting to have a decent time watching this movie, to cringe a great deal, and to emerge having enjoyed some fluffy entertainment.

Instead, I genuinely enjoyed the movie, I never cringed, and at the end I found it rather touching.  A lot of my positive feelings came from the fact that the lead actors turned in strong performances, with Dwayne Johnson doing a surprisingly good job of playing the teen nerd trapped in his body.  In addition, though the action scenes were fine and about what I had thought they would be, across the board the character-building scenes were better than I had expected. 

Both a fun ride and a movie with heart, this Jumanji is worth your time. 

Changes coming to this blog

In about a week, I'm going to announce the culmination of a project I consider significant.  (No, it's not the next Jon and Lobo book.)  I'll write several blog entries about it. 

Starting tomorrow, however, I'm going to stop blogging daily and blog only when I have something I want to share, feel is important, or motivates me for whatever reason to write.  I don't know how often I will blog, but it definitely wont be every day.

What I will be doing is focusing a lot more energy on finishing the sixth Jon and Lobo book.  That novel, All the Worlds Against Us, is still a long way--definitely months--away, but I've gone entirely too long without finishing it.  It's past time I do that.

Oh, yes, I'm ready for this movie

The first trailer just dropped, and I'm already psyched to see it.



How could I not be?  We're talking an Ocean's movie, a great cast, and Cate Blanchett in another action role. 

Did I mention Cate Blanchett?

I am so in the theater when this one hits.

What type of dinner should you eat while watching Love Actually?

1. Kebabs

2. Canapes, strictly canapes

3. Indian

4. Portuguese

5. Guacamole


Opinions?

Latkes FTW

Tonight featured this year's installment of the annual latke/Channukah party, aka The Big Fry.  I enjoy latkes but eat them only at this party.  The problem is, I am a latke wimp.  I can eat two, but no more--and the second typically has to be on the small side.

Each bite of latke that hits my stomach immediately begins growing.  I'm not sure how this process works, but in seconds the swelling commences.  By the time I've eaten my second, the latkes have grown into baby demons determined to emerge from me and kill those around me.

Fortunately, the latkes have never escaped--but then, neither have I.  Cheesecake and carrot cake help a little bit, perhaps by distracting the alien latke-beasts in my tum, but in the end, the only cure is time.

Maybe that's why I eat them only once a year.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I loved it.  Everyone in our group did.  From the opening text scroll to the end credits, the movie continued the Star Wars tradition admirably. 

I'd love to discuss this one further, but I believe you should avoid all data about it and just go see it.  In a few weeks, I'll come back to it. 

In the meantime, find the biggest screen you can, go to that theater, and enjoy this movie. 

Tonight's festive holiday trio at our house

1. Bad Santa, in our annual viewing

2. Spiral cut ham, because nothing says holidays like ham

3. Sandwiches, just the way granny would make them--or even better

The Christmas tree turns festive

The tree held the room for a few days, but obviously it needed to dress up for the holidays.  Our mission was clear:  lights and ornaments!

Voila!

Click the image to see a larger version.
Now, that is a tree that's ready for a party!