Tag Archives: aly

Sunday’s Top Links (5.1.2011)

In this week’s links gain insight into what Malcolm Gladwell reads, see how video games are changing education, watch an interview with Tina Fey, realize the power of bribery for getting things done, and uncover the bigger issues with smart phone data tracking.

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Categories: Sunday's Links
mario-chess

Welcome to this week’s top links!

1. Malcolm Gladwell: What I Read

Ever wonder what kind of media Malcolm Gladwell consumes? Well in this series called Media Diet from the Atlantic Wire, we get insights into Gladwell’s media consumption, as well as several others, such as Eric Schmidt, Clay Shirky, and more.

2. Bill Gates on Education & Games

Video Games as a solution for education has been a growing trend of late, and Bill Gates is clearly pushing the trend forward. In this article from Fast Company we see how video games are taking a bigger role in the re-design of education for the future.

3. Eric Schmidt Interviews Tina Fey

Eric Schmidt recently interviewed Tina Fey at Google HQ to discuss her new book, comedy, and life. It’s a good interview with some great advice from Tina Fey, and Eric Schmidt was a surprisingly good interviewer.

4. Problems With Procrastination? Try Bribery

There’s a few different ways to overcome procrastination: habit, fear, deadlines, but incentives or bribery is apparently the trendy solution. In this article from Fortune, we look at how properly framed incentives can get us to act.

5. The Spy In Your Pocket

I’m sure everyone has heard about the iPhone tracking scandal by now, but this article from the Economist dives deeper into the issue touching on the responses from Apple and Steve Jobs, the real problems, and the possibility of similar problems on the Android OS.

Also, if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.

Trending Failure

I’ve noticed lately just how much we’ve started to focus on the value of failure. It seems we’re understanding that failing is how we learn, how we grow, how we gain experience. But have we seen any significant change? Have we accepted failure individually?

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Categories: Media
fail

I’ve noticed lately just how much we’ve started to focus on the value of failure. It seems we’re understanding that failing is how we learn, how we grow, how we gain experience. I know I remember my failures much better than my successes, because they teach us something new and valuable every time.

Posts from Seth Godin, Wired, and Harvard Business Review have been hitting on failure more and more often, but are we seeing any significant changes? I’m not so sure. The underlying problems of accepting failure and making mistakes can be seen in the education system, where we get it drilled into our impressionable minds where being right is all that matters, and if you’re not right you’re basically stupid.

Additionally, even though we can acknowledge the importance of failure and making mistakes, are we able to actually be open to them, be receptive and accepting to situations when we have failures? Can we see the bigger picture, rather than feeling crappy, embarrassed, and discouraged? A recent TED Talk from Kathryn Schulz talks further about this idea of acceptance and being wrong. You can watch the full video below.

Are you ready to fail?

Sunday’s Top Links (4.24.2011)

In this week’s top links get a better understanding of Creative IQ, watch Zuckerberg’s interview with Obama, realize the change and opportunity of now, check out the NYT’s Cascade, and understand the benefits of working in a coffee shop.

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Categories: Sunday's Links
NYT Cascade

Welcome to this week’s top links!

1. Wile E. Coyote and Creative IQ

In response to Bruce Nussbaum’s claim that Design Thinking is finished (read here), frog design gives their take on the future of Creative Intelligence. In particular they touch on the misconceptions of creativity, as well as the fear that Creative Intelligence could face a similar demise as design thinking.

2. Zuckerberg Interviews President Obama

Watch the recent interview of President Obama last week at Facebook HQ. It was essentially Mark Zuckerberg holding a Live Town Hall with Obama and fielding questions from citizens. I find it very impressive how Obama has embraced social media for his campaign and it certainly helps with the younger demographics.

3. Realization Is Now, Opportunity is Here

In this post from Seth Godin, we get insight into the current state of society and the revolution that we are currently in the midst of. Aside from simply being aware of these changes, we also need to recognize the opportunity it brings along with it, which can be explored in the follow-up post here.

4. NYT Labs Cascade

New York Times has developed a new project named Cascade that maps out a timeline related to articles and information they create and share. It’s an interesting project and the information is beautiful, but I do wonder what they plan to do with the data they collect through this platform.

5. Working Best At Coffee Shops

An intriguing article from The Atlantic that focuses on the value of working at coffee shops. The article gives a number of reasons of why coffee shops are an ideal setting for work and some great examples of people who have utilized this avenue for their own creations. I personally love working in coffee shops and I think the article is spot on about the benefits.

And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.

Learning vs. Creating

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Categories: Musings
library

I recently read Do The Work by Steven Pressfield, the latest book from Seth Godin’s Domino Project. The e-book is free for download on Kindle, so you should definitely get a copy. Anyways, there was one concept he touched on in the book that resonated with me and that I have noticed about myself lately.

I love to learn, increasing my personal knowledge, discovering new concepts, ideas, and truths. Doesn’t sound so bad does it? Well my problem is, I get into this routine where all I do is spend my time learning: reading books, exploring my RSS feeds, watching TED Talks, so on and so forth. As much as I’d like to think of this as productive, it really isn’t, its just another form of busy work or procrastination.

In Do The Work, Pressfield talks about how research (or learning) can essentially be a form of the ‘resistance’ or a force that prevents you from getting work done. I completely understand what he means. What’s important in all this is striking the balance between learning and creating, and more importantly, accepting that learning is great, but creating is better.

I’m sure I’m not alone in getting caught up in this web of knowledge, especially when so much information is readily available to us, but hopefully understanding that these kinds of things are just another distraction, will be the first step to being more aware of how we spend our time.

I enjoyed reading Do The Work, but it’s Pressfield’s other book, The War of Art, that is a must read.

Sunday’s Top Links (4.17.2011)

In this week’s links we see how design thinking has failed, understand the power of influencers, find a resource for infographics, differentiate between inspiration & hard work, and explore a new initiative from TED.

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Categories: Sunday's Links
GOOD Infographic

Welcome to this week’s top links!

1. Design Thinking Is A Failed Experiment

This article from Bruce Nussbaum makes the bold statement that design thinking has failed and its time to move on. It’s an interesting piece basically outlining why he thinks we’ve gotten all we can from this process and its now time to move towards the next big thing: Creative Intelligence.

2. INFLUENCERS – Steve Stoute

Influencers is a short documentary about influential people and how trends become contagious in todays world. In this short in-depth series, Steve Stoute talks about the concept of cool, culture, communication, and collaboration.  You can watch the full documentary here.

3. GOOD Infographics

I’ve been a big fan of infographics and how they present information in a visually pleasing, yet effective manner. One of the best resources I’ve found for infographics is GOOD magazines website, where they have a large collection of high quality graphics covering a range of topics.

4. Inspiration vs. Working Hard

This article from Smashing Magazine, talks about the battle between Inspiration vs. Working Hard and how working hard always wins. It goes further into why inspiration doesn’t really work, despite our infatuation with it, and how ultimately its our hard work that will lead us to success.

5. TED Education

TED has recently decided to take the venture into education with their latest initiative through TED-ED. TED-ED is essentially a new platform focused around the TED community creating and shaping how TED can use its resources to enhance education. Become part of the Brain Trust to share your ideas today.

And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.

Sunday’s Top Links (4.3.2011)

In this week’s links we indulge our curiosity, experience another Cloud production, learn about the value of passionate people, discover Amazon’s Cloud Drive, and get advice on lessons learned. Enjoy!

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Categories: Sunday's Links

Welcome to this week’s top links!

1. I Always Wondered

I Always Wondered is exactly what it sounds like, a website that explores the curiosity of blogger Jarrett Green. In it he covers topics such as “How do plants know when to bloom”, “What makes curly hair”, and “When was the first email sent.” I love the concept and you’ll definitely learn a thing or two about mostly useless stuff.

2. The Music Box

Another brilliant video by Daniel Cloud Campos, focusing on the sounds you find in everyday life. He has some amazing work to date, and I suggest you also watch Welcome Home if you haven’t seen it yet.

3. Surround Yourself With Passionate People

The people you spend the most time with affect you greatly, which is why in this article from Zen Habits, the focus is on spending time with those that are passionate about what they do. They leave you both inspired and motivated, what more could you ask for.

4. Amazon’s Cloud Drive

Amazon recently launched their new service, the Cloud Drive, which essentially gives you 5 Gbs of free space online. If you’re familiar with Dropbox, you know how valuable these cloud storage services can be. The great thing is if you buy an album on Amazon, you’re automatically upgraded to 20 Gbs of space for the year. Not a bad deal at all.

5. How To Steal Like an Artist

An interesting article from Austin Kleon talks about lessons learned since he was in college. Its got some great insights about artists, advice, creation, and much more. Great read and even better lessons for us all to acknowledge.

And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.