How a book is made: a short story
Mysteries abound about how books become books. Unlike the Schoolhouse rock episode about how bills in the Senate become…
Latest Blog Posts
This week in pm-clinic: the white knight
After a few weeks on hiatus, the pm-clinic is back. With a vengeance. New tales of management challenges and…
Special offer from the book dart folks
My post about book darts was picked up by O’Reilly radar and lifehacker, and wouldn’t you know it: word…
Creativity: Supply vs. Demand
Creative people like to create – no surprise there. But most people who create things struggle to get anyone…
How we got here: Legacy of the whole earth catalog
Much of the current web 2.0 vibe was born by the folks who started the Whole Earth Catalog, the…
MLK, technology and inspiration
What gets me every time I hear Martin Luther King speak is this: he didn’t have a blog. Nor…
In defense of simplicity
Recently two notable design advocates, Don Norman and Joel Spolsky, challenged the value of simplicity in design, and I’m…
Handcrafted software: Jackson Fish
Hillel Cooperman of Microsoft and Tastingmenu fame has started his own software company, called Jackson Fish Market. He was…
Upcoming travel: MX, e-tech, GEL
A few dates over the next few months: Jan 19th, Amazon developers conference, Seattle Feb 12/13 Adaptive Path’s MX…
Book review: Dreaming in code
I was greatly anticipating Scott Rosenberg’s, co-creator of Salon, new book, Dreaming in code and was happy to get…
When should you take vacation? A strategy
The week between Christmas and New Years, is the worst time to use vacation. The reason is that’s when…
Thoughts on 7 days without power
Here’s my notes from the past week’s power outage experience: For all the fears and whining, I thought often,…
The return of power
Power came on late yesterday. We called Puget Sound Energy, our power that morning are were told we wouldn’t…
Death by Christmas Music
I’m on day 8 without power – I’ve become a local geek refugee, fluttering from coffeeshop to coffeshop in…
Storm Survival: Day 6
Today is the first I’ve had access to anything resembling wireless – Day 6 of the Worst windstorm in Seattle…
Cell text messages = the telegraph?
One great read from the innovation book research was Tom Standage’s The Victorian Internet. Among other great histories inside…
I want your photographs
With the first draft done on the innovation book, it’s now time to enlist bright creative minds in helping…
The mistakes of having a VP of innovation
Hypothesis: if ever a VP of something is created, perhaps a VP of quality or a VP of sarcasm,…
Book update: inside scoop + 1st draft complete
10 months down the road, the first draft is in the bag. Although I’ve written nearly 40 posts about…
Why smart people defend bad ideas: the mailbag
To my delight, every now and then the fine folks at slashdot or lifehacker mention an essay of mine,…