Dan’s Bookshelf

Last year, my pal Charles Fishman wrote a really smart book about a really big subject: Water. To research his topic, which is both monumental and barely noticed, he journeyed from Las Vegas to New Delhi to Burlington, Vermont, to rural Australia to report on the state of H2O. Fishman learned that we’ve been living […]

Chip Conley is a rare bird. He’s a successful entrepreneur, a provocative thinker, and — get this — a nice guy. Today, he’s out with his newest book, Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success, and it’s a gem. (Buy it at Amazon BN.com, or IndieBound.) In the book, Chip uses the grammar […]

Back in November I posted my list of five email newsletters worth reading, and asked PinkBlog readers to nominate theirs. I received loads of suggestions. Here are some of the best: Yulia Ivanova nominates the “wonderful” Brain Pickings and StartupDigest “for all things startup.” Nate suggests Big Think, which offers both a weekly round-up and […]

One reason I like writing email newsletters is that I also like reading them. Last month, a few folks asked me which e-newsletters I regularly read — not the ones I subscribe to, but those I actually read. Here, in alphabetical order, are my top five: 1. ArtsJournal — A fascinating roundup of stories on media, publishing, visual […]

Here’s a question that bedevils everyone from Fortune 500 boards seeking a replacement CEO to school principals hiring a new algebra teacher, from families looking for a great electrician to baseball teams searching for a better shortstop: How do you find extraordinary, game-changing talent? George Anders is a top-shelf business journalist, a veteran of the […]

Here’s a tip for rounding out your summer reading. Pick up a copy of The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. The book, which pubs today, is one of the best business books I’ve read in many years. (Buy it at Amazon, BN, or 8CR). The authors — Harvard B-school professor Teresa […]

Peter Guber is a Hollywood legend. The movies he’s produced — including The Color Purple, Midnight Express, Batman, and Flashdance — have earned over $3 billion worldwide and have snagged more than 50 Academy Award nominations, including winning Best Picture for Rain Man.  (He also owns the Golden State Warriors which, IMHO, is even cooler.) If […]

Many of us know that one secret to generating good ideas is producing bad ideas.  But if you look on your bookshelf or visit the best creativity and productivity blogs – or even ask Mr. Google “how to come up with bad ideas” —  you won’t find much guidance. Thank goodness, then, for the brilliant […]

Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void has a terrific new book out today, all about how to develop your very own evil plan. Seriously. It’s called — natch — Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Dominion. (Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Penguin.) We’re thrilled that Hugh provided us with this excerpt, exclusively for […]

This is the time of year when the temptation to hibernate — physically and mentally — can hit hard. It’s so much easier to stick with familiar and comforting routines, to trundle along in the same old rut. I asked clinical psychologist and George Mason University scholar Todd Kashdan — author of Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient […]