How To Think | Roger Martin’s “Opposable Mind”

I like the focus on “dealing with complexity” and not “sweeping it under the rug”.

I’m wired to like books on “thinking” and this is very interesting book of the thinking genre. It reminds me of Marg Wheatley’s “Management and the New Science“. In that book she describes how our world is complex and that thinking ( and solutions ) that choose to ignore the complexity are destined to fail. I buy that, but would like some help with problem solving ( thinking ) on complex issues. The Opposable Mind covers the “HowTo” part.

This book provides some good examples of thinking that works with “complexity”. Very cool

Links: Amazon, Wikipedia

Heavy Rotation Update

I’ve got the “Curse of Knowledge”

I think you suffer from the “curse of knowledge”.
You don’t know what it is like not to know what you already know.

I’ve finally reviewed the student evaluations for the course I taught in the fall. This was my favorite comment. It is spot on. I found that the more I knew the material, the harder it was to talk about it. So weird

Chalk up another one for Made 2 Stick

Link | Resume Writing … It’s not about you! » Squawkfox

I really like the first point in “What is a killer resume” — Your resume isn’t about you.

That hooked me. I scanned the whole series: Resume Writing Series » Squawkfox. Here is the summary list for a Killer resume. Lotsa good ideas. Enjoy.

What is a Killer Resume?

Your resume …

1. isn’t about you.
2. must sell you in seconds.
3. is a marketing tool, not a personal document.
4. highlights your accomplishments, not job duties or descriptions.
5. must focus on your future, not your past.
6. shows the skills you enjoy, not skills you have to use.
7. is not a confessional. You don’t have to tell all.
8. must list the important facts first.
9. must be free from grammatical and typographical errors.
10. must have a clean layout. No one wants to read a garbled mess.

Here are the other sections.

• What is a Killer Resume?
• 10 Resume Do’s
• 10 Resume Sins
• Resume Anatomy
• 6 Sucky Resume Words
• one more to come.

Heard about this series on lifehacker while looking for a new post on Adam Pash’s – Hack Attack. I’m missing his weekly feature.

Link | JDarkRoom Backdrop Tofu & good ol’ vi | WebWorkerDaily » Zen Computing

I can always count on GigaOm’s WebWorkerDaily for software gems. WebWorkerDaily » Archive Zen Computing: Toward a Distraction-Free Desktop provides a good list of editing tools that are distraction free.

I particularly like JDarkRoom (beware it doesn’t use all the standard Mac key sequences for example: save is Ctrl-S instead of the usual Command-S) and Backdrop. The irony/BlackHumour behind using these applications on a 23″ G5-based machine is big, but they really help me focus on one task at at time.

Back to the Future: The more I dig into these zen apps, the more that I end up firing up vi in Apple’s terminal vi may be ancient, but it really really works. Just set it to “green on black” in Terminal–>Window Settings… “et voila” totally zen, useful, powerful, and majorly productive.

Zen Reading App Tofu is great for reading.

Reading | The Snowball – Warren Buffett

I’m fascinated by The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. I’ve owned BRK a few times, but never dug into the “man”. I’m now almost halfway thru, and am really looking forward to the last half. It’s always amazing to see how many setbacks a “super-star” has to navigate thru. Gives hope to the rest of us.

This is my first biography in a while. I’m glad that Harvey Schachter mentioned this book in his best of 2008 list ’cause I’m certain that I wouldn’t have given a second look.

The only negative about this book is its length — 838 pages in print, or 37 hr and 1mins in audio. As usual I’m listening to audible version.

Reviews & Links

• Best of 2008: Best of the best: intelligent, clear, filled with advice – Harvey Schachter – The Globe and Mail
• The Snowball – NYTimes.com:
• Review: Snowball – Economist
• The Snowball: Wikipedia
• Warren Buffett – Wikipedia

Wow! Cold Fact by Rodriguez

This is a fantastic album! Who cares if its from 1970! Just get it. You can listen to lotsa of tunes on hypemachine/rodriguez. In a nutshell — think edgy Van Morrison. So cool! This is timeless.

My internal flag was raised when it turned up as #3 in eMusic Editor’s “Best Albums of 2008” list and doesn’t show up at all in the Member’s list. Very uncharacteristic.

Here’s a bit of background on why Cold Fact was reissued in 2008. Very cool.

Link | OECD Information Technology Outlook 2008 Document

fyi .. you can download the “free” version of the OECD Information Technology Outlook 2008 at this link OECD_Information_Tech_Outlook.pdf. It’s a monster 350 page document. Enjoy.