Calling London: Anyone want me to speak?
I’ll be in London for a few days in February 2013 with some time. Anyone interested in having me…
Latest Blog Posts
The truth about choosing book titles
I’ve published six successful books and in the years it took to write each one I’ve heard every range of…
Vote for the title of my next book
I’ve been hard at work on book #5. It’s about the year I spent working at WordPress.com. I want you…
Do you want a bar in your workplace?
Taking the question of how much does your workplace affect creativity in a new direction, the folks at Janelia…
Extreme Makeover: Bad Marketing Email
In response to my claim Jargon Feeds on Lazy Minds, my friend Kav sent me one of the worst marketing…
99 second presentations
A running joke in the world of presentations is: how short can they be? They used to be an…
The Art of Explanation (book)
Explaining things is my job. A living hero of explanations is Lee Lefever, one of the founders of CommonCraft.…
Why Jargon Feeds on Lazy Minds
[Note: this post was first published at Harvard Business Review and has been edited] If I could give every…
Idea beginnings and endings
The beginning of a very bad idea often feels very good. And the beginning of a very good idea…
Lessons from 24 hours offline
On a whim I decided to spend all of yesterday offline. No email, no Facebook, nothing. I used to have…
Eight ways to avoid killing your family over the holidays
We love and hate our families. We want to be with some of them, but after a few hours…
What I learned from Powerpoint Karaoke
Everyone has fears about regular public speaking, but what if you have to present someone else’s slides? And see them…
John Cleese on Creativity
I recently re-watched this excellent talk by John Cleese (of Monty Python) on creativity. The best parts are after the…
The hypocrisy of bosses asking for ideas
I discovered the CBC Comedy The Newsroom a decade ago, while watching PBS late one night. I didn’t know…
How To Find Your Voice
You have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself – Miles Davis There is a…
Best posts of the month (October)
Last month was one of the best months of traffic ever at scottberkun.com. These posts led the way in…
How to be a great host (at Ignite)
Ignite Seattle, an evening of fast presentations, runs like clockwork. We think of the evening as a show, and each…
Seven Problems with American Elections
America is one of the greatest countries the world and is often heralded as the best example of democracy…
How to make a good book from a blog
RR from the Reluctant Runner blog read my post on how to turn a blog into a book and…
How much vacation would you take if you could?
The Wall Street Journal recently ran a poll asking “If you had unlimited vacation, how much would you take? The…