Monthly Archives: June 2005

Americanisms Are Cool in a US-hostile World

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In today’s Financial Times there’s a funny and telling article (subscribers only) about how Americanisms are overtaking British English and even infesting countries full of anti-US sentiment.

The prompt for the article stemmed from outrage from the British Potato Council which said the derogatory phrase “couch potato” should be dropped because, in reality, the vegetable was bursting with goodness and nutrition. Excerpt:

In Britain people now say “hi” and “take care” instead of “hello” and “goodbye.” They call you instead of giving you a ring, swing by instead of paying you a visit, stand in line instead of forming a queue and go to the movies instead of watching a film…People pepper their speech with phrases such as “Don’t go there,” “Gedoudahere,” “Go figure,” and “Gimme a break.”…..China is more popular than the US right now, so why are we not all saying ‘ni hao’ instead of ‘hello’? The answer is that other countries may hate US foreign policy but they love American pop culture.

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Book Reviews: 4 Winners, 1 So-So, 2 Stinkers

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Having spent endless hours on trains the past couple weeks, I’ve gotten a lot of reading in. Here are brief words on four winners, one so-so, and two stinkers.

Winners – The first two are about religion. The first is Jon Krakauer’s new Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. This is literary nonfiction at its best – a powerful story that starts with a 1985 murder by some fundamentalist Mormons and then jumps back into history to offer a chronological and intimate look at the creation and evolution of Mormonism. Krakauer’s prose is lucid and the broader ideas about religion are thought provoking. Required reading for anyone interested in religion, Mormonism/Utah, or simply well-written “new-new journalism.” The second is Harvey Cox’s classic The Secular City. This one’s applicability to the average reader is not as broad as Krakauer’s. But, anyone with an academic interest in the intertwining of religion and urbanization must read this book.

The third is The Marketing Playbook: Five Battle-Tested Plays for Capturing and Keeping the Lead in Any Market, a clear and entertaining look at proven tactics that start ups can employ to make inroads in a new market. Finally, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life is a solid follow up to Csikszentmihalyi’s bestselling Flow. For anyone who subscribes to the Flow school of thought, you’ll find helpful reminders and the occasional new tidbit. Like any sequel, it’s not as good as the first, but still pretty powerful in shaping my outlook on life.

So-So – Oldschool by Tobias Wolff was an occasionally engaging portrait of a fictional east coast prep boarding school but required too deep an understanding of classic literature (an area where I’m admittedly pretty weak) to make it a winner. Nonetheless, the story may resonate with those who attended east coast boarding schools.

Stinkers – The New Normal : Great Opportunities in a Time of Great Risk was simply a regurgitation of what we’ve all read a million times in print media and on blogs. Maybe hearing everything a third time will help me remember this Web 2.0 world we live in, but I think I get it. New Lanchester Strategy: Sales and Marketing Strategy for the Weak was a cute attempt at using cartoons but after a few pages I tired of the cartoons. I like prose. Plus, the marketing concepts presented were pretty lame.

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German Newspaper Does Story on My Attempted WEF Sneak-In

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Is this vindication?

I was just informed that the major German daily paper Die Welt just did a story on the WEF forum event I posted about this morning with and led off with my being turned down – pretty funny. (HTML Version or PDF Version) Since it’s in German, I don’t understand all of it, but a quick translation tells me that the reporter garnered most his information from my blog. My quote is not from a phone conversation or email exchange – it’s from a blog post. The opening paragraph:

Ben Casnocha ist 17 Jahre alt, und das ist nicht alt genug. Der Schüler aus San Francisco ist Vorsitzender des Verwaltungsrates von Comcate. Comcate produziert Software für Stadtverwaltungen. Casnocha hat die Firma gegründet, als er 14 war, Firmensitz war sein Kinderzimmer. Heute hat das kleine Unternehmen als Kunden eine ganze Reihe von Kommunen und dazu einen neuen, erfahrenen Chef. Casnocha muß das Tagesgeschäft nicht mehr selbst erledigen, darum konnte er zum Schüleraustausch nach Zürich reisen.

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I Thought This Shit Only Happened in High School

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In the men’s bathroom in the UN European Headquarters in Geneva they had a flyer above the urinal that said something in French and then the English version: “Please use the black gum button on the floor to flush the water after using the urinals.” Someone took a pen and crossed out “use” and wrote “press” and crossed out “gum” and wrote “rubber.” Underneath that s/he then wrote “USA!” Here’s a picture.Img_0374

At my high school people post flyers above urinals advertising events and whatnot. Someone will post a flyer about a meeting on AIDS in Africa and someone will write some horrible thing like “Quarantine Africans!” or “Jane is hot!!!” (if Jane is organizer). Stupid shit like that.

I didn’t think I’d see the same thing at the UN. And people wonder why the US has a poor image abroad.

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It's Not Time We Lack; It's Smart Use of Our Energy Supply

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I’ve seen some chatter on the blogosphere about the “attention economy” and how we are more stressed for time than ever before. Wrong. We have MORE time than ever before. Things that used to take days or weeks now take hours. There have always been 24 hours in each day and there always will be. Trying to “find more time” is a stupid approach since you don’t control the clock. Here’s what you can control: your use of energy. Personal energy is a renewable resource. If you know yourself (a big IF), you should know which activities re-charge your energy supply. When we completely melt down under stress or lack of time, usually it’s just because our energy supply is low, not because we don’t have enough “time”. Remember, each thought and each action has an energy consequence. Use it and re-charge it wisely.

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