General

Phrase of the day: The Sanford and Son Economy

With the price of precious metals soaring, and with discarded consumer electronics embedded with these valuables piling up in junkyards, Cryptogon heralds the rise of — get this — the Sanford and Son Economy.  


Due(s) Day

Like many Americans, I’ve got conflicted feelings about taxes.  On the one hand, I recognize that they are the price we pay for civilized society.    On the other hand, I cringe (or worse) each time I pay them — because I have, er, serious doubts about the efficacy of handing over my hard-earned money to […]


(Lap)topless meetings

One reason I decided to work for myself 11 years ago was to avoid going to meetings.   At one place I labored back in the early 90s, I was astonished to discover a few months into the job that several people did nothing except attend meetings.  I’d have stuff to do (“Ahhh!!!”), but they’d […]


Our new look (version 0.9)

If you can read this, you can see that we’ve rolled out a new look for the site. We’re still fixing up lots of stuff. And I’m trying to learn a new blogging software system. So bear with us. And if you see kinks, chinks, or broken links that need fixing, send me an email.  […]


Fewer students major in computers

USA Today reports that fewer American college students are getting degrees in computer science. Why? They’re concerned that all the IT jobs are disappearing to India. The deeper lesson? Don’t abandon technology, but don’t become a narrowly left-brain technician. One IBM exec tells students, “You need a marriage of technical skills and business acumen.”


What’s your story?

StoryCorps, the extraordinary oral history project launched by Dave Isay and Sound Portraits, has taken to the road. (If you don’t know what StoryCorps is, check out Chapter 5 of A Whole New Mind, stroll through Grand Central Station, or listen to this great piece from NPR’s Morning Edition.) A fleet of Mobile Booths is […]


The Family Guy economy

Doonesbury spots a seismic shift in the commencement season zeitgeist. (Thanks to David Bonowitz for this one.)


Mini-Sagas: Another approach

Chapter 5 of A Whole New Mind discusses the importance of Story as a professional and personal ability. And one of the exercises in the Portfolio (AWNM‘s signature collection of tools, tips, etc.) at the end of the chapter is writing “mini-sagas” — that is, very short stories, only 50 words long. In southern California […]


More Conceptual Age jobs

(from today’s USA Today)


Word of the Day: Hygrid

This Wired story went online yesterday–and the email inbox is starting to fill. Check it out. And if you can, work the word “hygrid” into one sentence today.

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