Daniel H. Pink's Blog, page 30

UPDATE: Free New Year's Seminar

In the early evening of December 22, I announced that as a thank-you to the thousands of you who have pre-ordered Drive, I'd be offering a free New Year's Day teleseminar for 500 people. The response has been terrific — and terrifically gratifying.

The good news is that we actually still have some spots available — about 80 70 or thereabouts, according to the last count.

So if you're interested, check out this post. The seminar will be cool. I'll be revealing the 10 most important publications ...

Factoids of the day: Drugged out

"The U.S. government estimates that the cultivation and trafficking of illegal drugs directly employs 450,000 people in Mexico. Unknown numbers of people, possibly in the millions, are indirectly linked to the drug industry, which has revenues estimated to be as high as $25 billion a year, exceeded only by Mexico's annual income from manufacturing and oil exports."
(Source: The Atlantic, 12.09)

"In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a 'war on drugs,' the supply and use of ...

Free, exclusive New Year's Day teleseminar

To celebrate the arrival of 2010 and to thank the astonishing number of you who are pre-ordering Drive (the number of early orders already beats the monthly sales of AWNM's debut!), I am offering a free, exclusive New Year's Day teleseminar.

To participate, simply email the receipt for your Drive order to pinkseminar@me.com. You'll be registered for a free, one-hour teleseminar on January 1, 2010 at 2pm, EST. (Note: It doesn't matter whether you ordered the book a month ago–or whether you're...

What should Miles do?

A software developer in California (I'll call him Miles) wrote to me recently with a question about motivation. Instead of answering right away, I asked if I could pose his problem to all of you. Perhaps by combining our minds, we could be a free open source McKinsey & Company for motivation.

So here's Miles's question for us:

"How would you motivate a software team to reduce bugs in a product throughout the development process instead of just the end?"

And here's my question for all of you:

...

Facty Holidays!

December brings not only Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Festivus. The month also heralds even more luminous and transcendent arrival: A new edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States.  The mainstream press likes to call this annual publication "Uncle Sam's Almanac" — but within the tightly-bound world of factoid junkies, it's known as "1,000 pages of crack."

This year's edition is no exception. Among the delectables:

In 2008, there were more than 270 million cell phone...

What matters now?

The inimitable Seth Godin has assembled a crew of five dozen thinkers and doers from around the world to tackle that question. In a remarkable collection of one-page essays, released today, each member of Godin's dream team selects a single word — then uses it to offer guidance for the coming year.

I especially liked reading Elizabeth Gilbert on Ease, Tony Hsieh on Poker, Fred Wilson on Slow Capital, and Gina Tripani on Productivity. But I'd love to hear your reactions to any part of the...

Acronym of the day: PIIGS

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that some bearish international investors have coined a new term for the countries that they believe are the weak links of the euro zone: PIIGS — which stands for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain.

That follows on the heels of the oft-used term for the most important emerging markets — the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. And then there's the less popular acronym for the dangerous, nuclear-armed states of Pakistan, Iran, and...

Is the Drive tour coming to your city?

The official rollout for the new book is still a few weeks away—but for those who are interested, we've posted the Drive tour dates. As you'll see, it's a grueling schedule. So if you make it to any of these events, feel free bring me a cup of coffee, a can of Red Bull, or a few Excedrin tablets.

Meantime, since we'll be coming out of the box very quickly after the New Year, when many people are still in a holiday haze, I'm listing the main events of the first week below so you can plan...

Is this the future of magazines?

Apple Insider points to a demo of the soon-to-be-launched digital edition Sports Illustrated. If this is the future — and Wired and others are also working on their own digital editions — then maybe the magazine business isn't doomed.

(HT: Doug Flather)

My 10 favorite books of 2009

'Tis the season for end-of-the-year lists. But why let the MSM have all the fun?

Herewith, arranged alphabetically, are my ten favorite books of 2009.  All of these are great, and many of them make me proud to be a writer. (Note: These are books I read in '09. A few were published in other years.)

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

Somehow Chaon managed to create a lock-yourself-in-the-bathroom-to-see-how-it-turns-out thriller that's also a nuanced meditation on the fluidity of identity. Oh, and...