Agree and Commit, Disagree and Commit. Fantastic talk at Stanford by Greg Ballard. He suggests the ability to strongly disagree with, and yet still commit to, an idea is one of the most valuable workplace skills.
Links
Exit & Return. The first half of a two-part podcast episode about Shulem Deen, who, as a 22-year old Hasidic Jew in 1996, discovered the web through America Online. Much of the available content conflicted with Hasidic standards and ultimately led to him being expelled from the community. The second part is also available. – via Peter
Interview with Brunello Cucinelli. Om’s interview with the “king of cashmere.” There are really interesting perspectives on life, business, and seeking balance throughout the interview. And, if you’re not already following Pico I highly recommend it.
Tradeoffs. Episode 36 of Ben Thompson’s Exponent podcast. I’ve been catching up on past episodes lately and this one’s really good. It focuses on the tradeoffs inherent to net neutrality considerations. If you don’t already, I’d also highly recommend subscribing to Ben’s Daily Update.
Blue Chips. An oral history of the 1990s Orlando Magic; basically a narrative constructed through interviews with team members, executives, and people around the NBA. Interestingly designed as well.
Two good reaction pieces to Facebook’s new study published in Science. Zeynep Tufekci wrote an overview of the study as well as links to many other good reflections. Nathan Jurgenson also wrote about what makes the study methodologically questionable and some of its other shortcomings.
The Creative’s Workspace. Shawn Blanc’s tips on creating a pleasant environment and effective habits for working from home.
Live Chat and Lean Manufacturing. My co-worker Simon ponders the similarities between live chat support and continuous-flow manufacturing. Beyond number of questions answered the piece which intrigues me is completed problem sets. In other words, define a complete customer problem set as ABCD. What percentage of live chats work through that complete set versus what percentage have the customer bail midway through? And, how does that compare to email support?
Podcatch.com. A collection of podcast feeds via friends and friends-of-friends of Dave Winer. It’s a neat idea for discovering something new to listen to. There’s more background, too, on what led to building it.
Habit List. I’ve been looking for a simple app like this ever since Lift shifted toward coaching. Really clean and slimmed-down app for tracking and reminding yourself of habits to keep.