Clarke Ching's Rocks and Snowballs

How will you measure your life?

You really must spend 10 minutes reading this very thoughtful article
from Clayton Christensen:

http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/1

I'm making this as a personal, rather than business, recommendation.

It's free.

Clarke

Telegraph has affiliate/commission links inside it's articles?

If you click on this link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/amazon/7929091/Amazon-opens-UK-Kindle-store.html you'll read an article on the UK's Telegraph newspaper about the new Kindle store opening in the UK.

Scroll down a little and you'll see a link at the bottom of the article which says Buy the Amazon Kindle from Amazon.co.uk.

If you look closely, the link url looks like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002Y27P46?ie=UTF8&tag=telegraphcouk-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B002Y27P46.

I don't know ... but does the "tag-telecgraphcouk-21" mean that the if I buy a kindle (and maybe even a kindle book, or maybe even any product) after visiting that page .... does the Telegraph get a commission?

If they do then I'm guessing they've just crossed an awkward commercial / editorial boundary.  

Bring Back ...

So far no one has heeded my call to bring back Magnum PI.  While I'm waiting I have a couple of requests.

First, do you remember a really cool app you could get on your PC in a about 1995 where little sheep walked around the windows on your screen?  I think it may have been a screen saver.  It was probably one of THE best things I've ever seen a computer do.  It kinda makes the iPhone look feeble.  Any idea what it was called or if there's a modern version of it?

Second, way back in 1992 I saw some ascii art with cows on it.  I've not seen art like it since.  Any ideas how to find it?

Switch - by Chip and Dan Heath

You no doubt recall that one of my favourite books ever is Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick.  If you liked that book then I've got good news for you: their new book Switch, is fantastic too.  Go buy it.

http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281033425&sr=8-1

In the last few months I've read the book once and listened to the audio book 4 times.  Each time I listen to it I like it even more.  It is a keeper.  Which is a good thing because it took me a while to warm to it.  

The first time I read it I was bored at work with not a lot to do and very little immediate need for a well written book on change.  More recently, though, I've not been bored at work and I'm in the middle of a change effort where I have little authority. And that's precisely what the book is about.  Every time I listen I get sparks - maybe one ever 10 minutes - in my brain saying either "yes, yes, that explains a lot" or "oh boy, never thought of that", "I've heard that before ... but not quite put in that way" or "okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, let me think about for a while".

I started reading and studying marketing & selling & change about 10 years ago when I realized that I was man full of good ideas but with no idea how to get others interested in them.  I got stuck at work because I couldn't figure out how to make my ideas stick.  So I've spent a lot of effort at getting better in that area (hint: the MBA helped in terms of credibility, but not much in terms of skills; writing a blog and writing articles helped enormously; finding two things I'm passionate about - Agile, TOC - and deciding I needed to let the world know more about them was key).   So I've read and practiced a lot of the "change literature" over the last decade.  There wasn't all that much new for me in Switch ... but the way it was presented was what did it for me.  Lots of stories.  Lots of deliberate repetition.  Lots of little, profoundly simple, nuggets, with no unnecessary words.  Oh, and the guy who read the audio book has a great voice.

If you're in a similiar position to what I was then buy and then read and read and read both of the Heath books.