In Praise of Joe

This week, I was in the car, listening to the radio, and just happened to catch Garrison Keillor hosting The Writer’s Almanac. He always reads a poem, in addition to giving tidbits about writer’s lives. Sometimes I find that I have to concentrate too hard to enjoy the poem while I’m driving. But on this…

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Why Monetizing Before Community-Building Doesn’t Work for Books

I’m reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and this paragraph got my attention: "In 2004, 950,000 books out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen BookScan sold fewer than ninety-nine copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies.  The average book in America sells about 500 copies.…

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A Job Post I Can Get Excited About

A friend pointed me to a job post that says as much about the company as who they are looking for. The text of the job post is in italics, with my reactions in bold. "We are looking for talented people…" It seems that every third job posting for user interface design or user research…

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Never Eat Alone

I discovered the book, Never Eat Alone, when I listened to an interview with the author, Keith Ferrazzi. I originally wanted to blog about the book because it has so much good advice on networking. And after doing a bit more research, I could see that he also understands how to use branding and technology…

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Passion, Down to the Crankshaft

My husband pointed me to a site on vintage racing bikes, maintained by Ray Dobbins, avid collector and seller. It’s a wonderful glimpse of someone who loves what he does. From the detailed description of the equipment used to photograph bikes in Dobbins’ garage (e.g., 1,000 watt Sears work lights and a backdrop of two…

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