Sunday’s Top Links (4.10.2011)

Posted By Aly Juma / 10th April 2011

Welcome to this week’s top links!

1. How to Get a Real Education

In this article by Scott Adam’s, creator of Dilbert (love his comic), we look at how education often takes the approach of one-size fits all, when this shouldn’t be the case. More importantly, we get an inside look at how Scott truly learned, while he was in college.

2. The Three A’s of Awesome

Neil Parsicha, blogger turned author, shares his story of the three A’s of awesome,  in an inspiring TED Talk. Neil is most well known for his blog, 1000 Awesome Things, that shares with the world the smaller things in life that we truly enjoy.

3. Makers and Managers

Both makers and managers have value, but the real key is finding the balance between the two. In this article, Seth Godin explores how such a balance can be established. Also check out the essay by Paul Graham that inspired this article.

4. Five Rules for Remembering Names

In this short video from Fast Company, memory expert Bob Gray talks about some tips on how to remember peoples names, as well as how valuable this skill can really be for business and networking.

5. How to Hone Your Influencing Skills

Another piece related to developing your personal skills, this article from Work Awesome discusses how to improve your ability to persuade. One of the tips is remembering people’s names, seems like its a pretty important one.

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

The MBA and Failure

Posted By Aly Juma / 23rd March 2011

One of my favorite comics is Dilbert by Scott Adams, the following two cartoons are part of a series he did on MBA’s recently.

Ok, this one may be a little unfair and extreme, but its still quite hilarious. The next one is my favorite though.

This one I have to say I agree with completely, simply because I feel like you actually learn and gain value from real world experience, not from studying cases. I think the biggest flaw with the case methodology is the fact that you can’t fail, you can’t be wrong, and therefore you can’t really learn.

In a recent article from Blogging Innovation, Tim Kastelle explores the idea of how “being wrong is the only way to learn.” He goes on to identify the benefit of experimentation, failure and discovering things on your own. This idea of failure and experimentation is a missing component from the MBA, and I think if you don’t know how to fail and experiment and learn, you really don’t have much to fall back on. Schools in general frown upon the idea of failure, but they’re depriving us of one of the most important and valuable lessons in life.

Accountability

Posted By Aly Juma / 23rd October 2009

Dilbert

The ludicrous dynamics of the work place… never fails to entertain.

Losing Ourselves in Technology

Posted By Aly Juma / 9th October 2009

Oh the perils of modern day technology. Every day that passes, we’re getting more and more attached to our technology and access, while losing on our ability to socially interact. It’s a dangerous game.