Archive for January, 2010

Turns out there really is a Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross station in London. Here I am escaping my other obligations and racing to board the Hogwarts Express. (King’s Cross railway station, London, 28 January 2010, 9:30pm)

I’m in London (and Newcastle and Cambridge) this week, promoting the UK edition of Drive, which launched a few days ago. Below are a photo, an idea, a factoid, and a quote from the road. PHOTO To my amazement, Drive is #6 on the b.s. list at WH Smith, the giant retailer. Here’s a photo […]

Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin, launches today. And like all of Seth’s work, this one will rattle your neurons and rouse your heart. As part of his effort to spark conversations, he’s interviewed several other authors about their work — and how their ideas relate to his. Below is the interview Seth did with me on […]

Monday’s USA Today has a largely positive review of Drive (“fascinating . . . a powerhouse”) that bears an unfortunate headline: “Raises Make Bad Motivators.” At the risk of sounding like a peevish author picking nits from the tangled hair of quickly forgotten reviews, let me do precisely that. Drive never says that raises aren’t […]

Herking and jerking through airport security these days is nobody’s idea of fun. Jackets end up in tangled balls. Shoes and belts enter the X-ray, then don’t reappear. Gray bins collide, knocking laptops to the floor. The whole experience can be discombobulating. Enter the good people at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport. As I discovered last […]

“For the first time in American history,” today’s New York Times reports, “a majority of union members are government workers rather than private-sector employees.” Last year, the U.S. had 7.9 million unionized workers in the public sector and 7.4 million in private industry. Only 7. 2 percent of the private sector workforce belongs to a labor union, […]

Okay. I’ve done it. I’ve created my own iPhone app. With the help of the amazing folks at Mobile Roadie, we’ve launched the official (sic) Daniel Pink app. You can download it — it’s free! — from iTunes. What’s cool about apps in general, and this one in particular, is that they feel like web sites […]

Every so often, when I run through the streets near my Washington, DC, home, I see a truck that belongs to Rosa’s Mobile Pet Grooming. Instead of bringing their pooch to the pet barber, people in my neighborhood can wait for Rosa’s to come to them. I’ve always thought this was a good idea. But […]

If a place that looks like this has a line, you know the food will be good. But when you discover that the burritos cost just $4 and you have to eat them in a parking lot, you know the food will be really good. And it was. (2056 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles)

Richard Ryan, one of the behavioral scientists whose research figures prominently in Drive, thinks you might be, according to a recently released paper. But the reason for this “weekend effect” isn’t leisure, he says. It’s autonomy most of all — as well as the satisfaction that comes from emotional relationships.  On Saturdays and Sundays, he […]