Letters Remain

Month: January 2009

  • Advice on Being a Consultant

    Consultant Steve Friedl offers some fantastic advice on being a consultant. I found this comment interesting: I purposely put the technical part of this Tech Tip last, to reinforce the notion that “customer service”, not “computer science” skills are the biggest factors in a successful consulting practice. But it’s foolish to think that technical skills…

  • The Contagion of Happiness

    In a 20-year study of almost 5,000 people it was found that happiness is more contagious than previously thought. While there are many determinants of happiness, whether an individual is happy also depends on whether others in the individual’s social network are happy. Happy people tend to be located in the centre of their local…

  • What Will Change Everything?

    The Edge annual question, 2009: What will change everything? Nobody ever voted for printing. Nobody ever voted for electricity. Nobody ever voted for radio, the telephone, the automobile, the airplane, television. Nobody ever voted for penicillin, antibiotics, the pill. Nobody ever voted for space travel, massively parallel computing, nuclear power, the personal computer, the Internet,…

  • Interview with Obama’s Campaign Manager

    An interview with Barack Obama’s presidential campaign manager, David Plouffe: There are business analogies. One is, we’re a startup, we had to go from zero to 60 in a matter of weeks. Our company, if we were successful, would only last two years at the most. You have an end line. You don’t have quarter…

  • For-Profit Charities

    Charities should embrace for-profit business models in order to drive fundraising, or so says Dan Pallotta, author of Uncharitable and founder of the now-defunct Pallotta TeamWorks company; a for-profit organisation that produced many successful fundraising events for nonprofits. In his column The Sin of Doing Good Deeds, The New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof…

  • The Science of Shopping

    The Economist has a fascinating and eye-opening article looking at the ‘science of shopping’. Mind Hacks reviews the article: The piece discusses the psychology of big store marketing, touching on three areas: store layout and environment design, ‘neuromarketing’ and customer tracking. It’s interesting that much of the fuss in the media has focused on ‘neuromarketing’…

  • Recession’s Influence on Working Habits

    During times of recession the way business is conducted changes drastically. Given the current economic climate, Lynda Gratton—a professor from the London Business School—wonders what working habits will emerge now? The 1981-82 recession heralded the end of the notion of a “job for life”. Jobs and careers would never be the same. The mantra following…

  • International Year of Astronomy 2009

    2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, and to celebrate Seed Magazine has compiled some awe-inspiring images. For more incredible images, see The Big Picture’s Hubble Space Telescope Advent calendar.

  • Celebrating Neutrality

    On wondering why there are a lot fewer prediction markets than the topic’s popularity might suggest, Robin Hanson of Overcoming Bias looks at neutral arbitrators and asks, Who Cheers the Referee? Similarly who cheers the officials who keep elections fair, or the teachers who grade fairly?  Inspiring stories are told of folks who win legal…

  • Success During the Great Depression

    From Google Answers: “What industries fared relatively better and worse in terms of pricing and demand during the Great Depression of 1929? Do the industries reflect a hierarchy of demand from essential consumables to deferrable purchases to capital goods? What specific companies did well in any industry and what distinguishes those companies.” The answer provides…