Noise Between Stations

If there’s still anyone out there who follows this blog I’m sure you’re wondering why the post frequency has dropped off and why it consists mostly of quoting the New York Times. I’ve been busy slowly creating my latest passion, a school of continuing education called Smart Experience. I could write a lot about it, [...]

The Sartorialist blog has been a big hit, with each post getting dozens of comments. Why? On the surface it’s the usual blogger story: an individual with insight on a particular topic publishes quickly and honestly sans organizational overhead. To me, the Sartorialist does something else important. He delineates the difference between art and design. [...]

This blog turned 8-years old on Saturday, which in person years is about 61.

The skinny here is that I’d like to work on correcting the uneven access to Internet jobs (great jobs, btw) by providing education to the disadvantaged. By disadvantaged I mean — here in New York City — mainly blacks and Hispanics, but generally those with lower income. I’m not sure how organizations who provide such [...]

A fun story of one couple embracing the secular side of Christmas… So as I browsed past velvet monogrammed stockings and quilted tree skirts and pine wreaths and silver-plated picture frames that doubled as stocking holders (genius!), I said to myself, as much as to my husband: “This is why I sometimes wish I celebrated [...]

In HBR this month is a rare, methodical (and free) look at the financial effect of online communities via a study of eBay Germany… Over the course of a year, we compared the behavior of community enthusiasts and lurkers with that of the control group. The differences were astonishing. Lurkers and community enthusiasts bid twice [...]

Dr. Michael J. Norden, a University of Washington professor of psychiatry, found a correlation between playing ultimate frisbee and success in university. He explains: Students not known for athletic prowess “can show up at college having never played” and be good at it by year’s end. The game calls for “spatial aptitude” (“to ‘read’ the [...]

In City Planet, Stewart Brand describes the current massive migration to the world’s cities and the reality of squatter cities. The piece changed the way I understand cities and how the world population is evolving. Here’s some quotes… The growth of cities has led to demographic trends exactly the opposite of what many experts have [...]

Registration is open for the Information: Design, Experience, Access conference happening at the Seattle Public Library, October 23-24, 2006. It looks to be a fun, thought-provoking event.

Do you walk down the street and notice patterns all around you? If so, you might suffer from apophenia — a serious malady that goes undiagnosed for years in most people. Talk to your doctor to see if Metavor is right for you. Satire courtesy of Chris Baum.

My business partner Jim just returned from doing a presentation in Turkey. Notable comment: “Istanbul looks more like San Jose than Constantinople.”

I’m in lovely tho’ rainy Vancouver to co-teach our seminar. If you’re in the area do come by and say hello.

I usually don’t participate is such folly, but I’m feeling frivolous… Four jobs I’ve had: painting playgrounds building houses administering computer networks writing about music Four movies albums I can watch listen to over and over: Steely Dan’s Aja Death Cab For Cutie’s We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes Mahler’s Tenth Symphony Led [...]

For the sake of innovation, it’s tempting to mash up people internal and external to a company. We’ve seen how important it is that employees be customers, like JetBlue’s employee-centered priorities, and how customers can contribute to companies. This could be one of the most important changes in culture we can bring to companies, but [...]

“There’s a simple doctrine. Outside of a person’s love the most sacred thing they can give is their labor. Labor is a very precious thing you have and any time you can combine labor and love you’ve really made a match.” — James Carville