2 ways to honor Steve Jobs

1. Become an organ donor. 2. Watch this speech:

Which do you prefer: An expensive latte or an expensive loan?

Yesterday I heard a terrific presentation from Kevin Volpp, a University of Pennsylvania economist and physician who studies, among other things, how techniques from behavioral economics can nudge people into healthier behaviors. In his talk, to demonstrate how prevalent economically irrational behavior is, he showed a chart comparing growth in Starbucks outlets versus growth in payday [...]

Attention, TV viewers

This just in from the Department of Self-Promotion . . . If you’re in or around Hartford, CT, on Monday January 12, please tune in to Connecticut Public Television (Channel 24) at 8pm for the debut of television special based on A Whole New Mind. The program will air during pledge week on CPTV — and then on other public [...]

Who’s the Robert Parker of Asia?

It’s this guy — Shizuku Kanzaki, a character in a popular Japanese manga series.The NY Times picks up on the amazing Japanese phenomenon of Kami no Shizuku – a manga series that is reshaping the Asian wine market.The Drops of God, as the title roughly translates in English, tells the story of a reluctant wine maven. And it’s become [...]

Sorry for the interruption

Over at Marci Alboher’s always excellent blog, author Maggie Jackson shares some interesting thoughts about the modern workplace’s culture of distractions.   Among other findings, Jackson reports that:• “The average knowledge worker switches tasks every three minutes, and, once distracted, a worker takes nearly a half-hour to resume the original task.”  • “Interruptions and the requisite recovery time now consume [...]

Obama’s one-word equity

I was thinking about the business implications of the Obama juggernaut the other day when a friend said to me, “I can’t think of the word ‘hope’ any more without thinking of the guy.’”  Something about that comment stuck in my head.Then this afternoon, I was going through some piles of clippings and ran across [...]

Ho-ho-ha-ha-ha

John Cleese discovers laughter yoga and visits the same laughter club that I visited in Mumbai and wrote about in AWNM.  Fun viewing.     (HT: BoingBoing)

An art gallery inside an accounting firm?

Don’t laugh.  Vitale Caturano in Boston has one.

Lots of trash talk

The only good news at Reagan National Airport