Making the Cellphone Easier

At Cool Tools, the Moshi Moshi Manual Cellphone Handset. The name alone is worth the purchase.

Management Styles: Europe and USA

Here is an excellent review by Bizshift's Blog on whether there are distinctive American and European management styles. An interesting quote:

“If one has to generalize, it is fair to say that Americans pursue risk and Europeans seek stability”
~ Antonio De Luca

The Home Office

Books and papers are scattered about. Several drafts of a management workshop are on my desk. A tray of used coffee mugs is in the corner. Masking tape secures a variety of reminders on the wall. A flip chart has the results of an earlier analysis of the workshop's subjects. Some bottles of vitamins are near my computer lest I forget to take them. To my right, I can see a replica of The Maltese Falcon. Hanging up high is a commendation that my uncle received for his service in France during the First World War. The sofa is covered with files, magazines, and notes.

All is well. The class is coming together.

Litany

You are undisciplined, slothful, timid, lacking ambition and drive, and perfectly willing to spend a perfectly fine day staring at the ceiling.

Oh wait. Forget those. You're ill.

Quote of the Day

I have been informed that Monsieur _______ is dead. He was a staunch patriot, a talented writer, a loyal friend, a devoted husband and father - provided he is really dead.

- Voltaire

Noir Break

When you have a John Huston film with Louis Calhern, Sterling Hayden, and Sam Jaffe (not to mention Marilyn Monroe), you have something extraordinary. A scene from "The Asphalt Jungle."

On Work

A fascinating clip of Richard Burton talking about coal mining.

Almost As If...

At Unhappy Hipsters: Freshly bleached and scrubbed, the only reminder of ‘that day’ was a handful of scars in the wood.

[Be sure to read the comments.]

Strategy and Six-Month Sprints

From Fast Company, Gadi Amit on strategy and the future of design:

The other day, I had lunch with a design executive from a wonderful company that’s been doing everything right -- it has a strategic design agency (not mine), and it has had design thinking in its bloodstream a decade before the term was coined. And yet what it’s doing just isn’t working. By the time its last design strategy process ended, it was nearly obsolete -- too prescribed and too inflexible. My buddy had to start over again, and this time, he opted for a different philosophy: No design strategy would take a long time to define or be too stiff to bend to an evolving reality. The marching orders now are for short, concise, and dynamic processes, allowing products to be introduced into a marketplace that are well understood and within a reasonable forecast.

Konrath on Promoting E-Books

Thriller author Joe Konrath has some interesting ideas for promoting e-books and offers some motivational thoughts. Among them are:

• There's a word for a writer who never gives up... published.


• Denial is a powerful opiate.


• If you're selling eggs, don't piss off your chickens.


• Before you make the key, study the lock.