Quote of the Day

Posted inSports1 Comment on Quote of the Day

"It's never that I didn't send child support. It's just that I didn't send the amount that was said to be sent by the courts."

– Jason Caffey, 35, former player for Chicago Bulls and holder of two world championship rings. Caffey has fathered 10 children with 8 women and they are suing for child support payments.

Hat tip to Andrew Hess, whose sports blog is titled Just Trying to Feed My Family in honor of Latrell Sprewell turning his nose at a $21 million contract offer by insisting "I'm just trying to feed my family."

Of course when I was growing up I knew Sprewell as the player who choke strangled then Golden State Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo to the ground and threatened to kill him because Carlesimo asked Spree in  practice to "put a little mustard" on his passes.

Welcome to the NBA.

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Accepting a High Failure Rate for Creativity

Posted inBusiness7 Comments on Accepting a High Failure Rate for Creativity

The Onion is consistently hilarious. For those who don't know, The Onion is a spoof newspaper with satirical headlines and a few paragraphs of fake quotes and commentary.

The radio show This American Life recently reported on how The Onion does what it does. Bob Sutton picks up on this interesting factoid: to get the 18 quality headlines needed for each week's edition, the writers have to propose 600 headlines in total. That's pretty refined filter, and as Bob notes, not unusual for a successful creative operation. At IDEO's toy group only 3% of proposed product ideas survive.

To come up with good ideas, you need to turn off the self-censor and crank out as many ideas as possible. Most of them will suck. But that's part of the process.

For the more visually inclined, here's what creativity at The Onion looks like:

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Explain Your Opponent’s Perspective

Posted inPhilosophy20 Comments on Explain Your Opponent’s Perspective

Here’s one of the simplest ways to test someone’s knowledge of an issue: ask them to explain the other side of the argument.

Ask the person who’s pro-choice to explain the pro-life perspective.

Ask the person who’s in favor of spending more money on marketing project X to explain the thinking process behind those who oppose the budgetary move.

Ask McCain supporters why in the world someone would support Obama and see if they give an answer beyond, “He’s a good speaker.”

Ask those who deride the bailout plan in Congress to explain the argument for the bailout plan.

Bottom Line: I have yet to find a more efficient and reliable way to probe the depths of a person’s knowledge and seriousness about an issue than asking them to explain the other side’s perspective.

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Tom Peters and Seth Godin On Stage

Posted inEntrepreneurship2 Comments on Tom Peters and Seth Godin On Stage

Two of the most interesting business thinkers around, Tom Peters and Seth Godin, were on-stage together at a recent event and jointly answered questions about "the entrepreneurial mind." Here's a page with all the labeled two minute clips. The best ones:

  • Let's hear it for the blog. Seth says that blogging is not about the size of your audience but the "meta cognition" of thinking about what you're going to say and then saying it, having to explain yourself. Tom says that blogging is the most important professional thing he's done in the last 15 years. Note: Seth says "blogging is free." Not true. Blogging takes time. Time is money.
  • What's first: loyal employees or loyal customers? Tom says loyal employees, and relays the story of Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines) writing a letter to a verbally abusive customer saying, "You do not have the right to treat my employee badly."
  • Has technology killed customer service? Seth says an angry customer is an opportunity to deliver a Wow! experience.

Some other random links:

  • Andrew Sullivan has a nice meditation on why he blogs in the latest Atlantic. Scott Rosenberg notes that Andrew is coming at it from the perspective of a trained print journalist, and not all bloggers are alike.
  • The New York Times as a business is running on fumes. Here's one plan for how it can save itself: sell the Boston Globe, sell its stake in the Red Sox, cut 20% of the newsroom, etc.
  • Is there a more articulate guy in live oratory than Christopher Hitchens?
    • In that Charlie Rose interview Hitchens says he's never had a gift for writing fiction. One proxy for fiction writing ability, he says, is a deep understanding of / appreciation for music.
  • Women, have you ever made this request to your man? [Warning: Not safe for work.]
  • Half of U.S. doctors use placebo treatments…and many do not even tell their patients that they're giving a placebo instead of a real pill.
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Trusting Your Friends vs. “The Authority”

Posted inWeb/Tech2 Comments on Trusting Your Friends vs. “The Authority”

You’re trying to decide what computer to buy. Who do you ask for advice — your tech friend who knows your particular tastes or The Authority (CNet reviews for example)?

You’re trying to decide what restaurant to eat at. Who do you trust more — your friend who has historical insight into other restaurants you like or The Authority (Yelp.com aggregated reviews)?

You’re trying to decide what movie to watch. Do you ask your friend or check IMDB to tap the wisdom of crowds?

Many web 2.0 products hype the “social graph” — all the things you can do when you’re intimately connected to what your friends are doing, buying, recommending, etc. in real time.

When pondering the potential applications of these products, it’s often assumed that we will rely more and more on people who actually know us since we will be connected to them in a regular and comprehensive way. But I’m not so sure.

People are deferential to authority. We glorify experts. There’s no doubt that I want to hang out with my friends on the weekend rather than The Expert on Having a Good Time on the Weekend. But when it comes to buying a computer, or finding the best political commentary online, or any number of other transactional goals, I prefer to tap into a larger, anonymous sphere called The Google or the collected wisdom of qualified strangers.

Bottom Line: Just because the web can make us more connected with our friends this doesn’t mean we will necessarily want to rely on their personal opinions more.

[Related Post: Advice on Giving Advice. When you seek advice, should you consult the domain expert or someone who knows you best? Your mother may know you best but she may not know the industry you’re considering going in to.]

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