Summation

NYT -- How to Talk About Israel

Read today's article in the New York Times Magazine: How to Talk About Israel.

This is a very revealing article about global reaction to Israel and people's feelings towards Jews. See the opening passage:

The Jewish Problem pops up in the strangest places. In the winter of 1991, at the height of the first gulf war, I asked a right-wing Japanese politician who still wields considerable power in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to explain the Japanese role in the Middle Eastern conflict. After clearing his throat with some perfunctory remarks about oil supplies and United States-Japan relations, he suddenly stopped midsentence, gave me a shrewd look and said: ''Look, we Japanese aren't stupid. We saw Henry Kissinger on TV. We know how America operates. We're perfectly well aware that this war is not about Kuwait. It's about Jewish interests. It's all about Israel.''

Pretty scarey that a high-level official in Japan, of all places, can think like this. I highly encourage you to read this article ...

Book: Absolutely American -- Four Years at West Point

Absolutely American
Four Years at West Point
by David Lipsky

I plowed through this book -- couldn't put it down. Lipsky, a reporter for Rolling Stone, followed various students in the G-4 company at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from the fall of 1999 to the spring of 2002. Lipsky details the different students he met and how they changed over their years at West Point (and how many do not actually make it to the finish line). He also introduces the personalities of the instructors and administrators of West Point and their goal to invigorate these cadets into real soldiers.

This is an extremely good book. One the one hand, it details all that is good about the Army (team work, great race relations, dedication, sacrifice, achievement, etc) and many of the Army's weaknesses (incredible bureaucracy, uneven punishment, stupid rules that change often, etc.).

I encourage you to tell all your civilian friends to read it. I learned a ton and have continued to build my appreciation of the military.

Almost famous

Almost famous
Musings about fame, knowing, and being known

We often speak of people knowing other people. That implies that any pair of people knows one other. But sometimes, one person "knows of" another and that person is "known by" other people. For example, I know of Britney Spears but she does not know me (unless she's that person prank calling me every day at 3am). Therefore, we do not know each other.

Even when two people know of one another, that does not mean they actually know each other. Bill Clinton knows of Britney and Britney knows of Bill -- but I do not think they actually know one another (and I certainly hope, for Hillary's sake, that Bill does not "know" Britney like he knows other 21-year-olds).

This phenomenon also applies to web sites. I might link to FoxNews.com (according to Google, 14,800 sites link to Fox News) but as of today, Fox News has not linked to Summation (even though I keep sending large fruit baskets and vintage Pez dispensers to Butch, the Fox webmaster). Thus, Fox News is known by me but Summation, as usual, is still three dimes away from a shiny new quarter.

Most people know of more people than they are known by. My definition of someone who's "famous" is someone who is known by more people than he or she knows of. I started thinking of this recently when a few of my friends in San Francisco started introducing me as the "famous Auren Hoffman." So I did a quick calculation and, at the very most, I am known by:

* Most of Summation's newsletter subscribers (12,000)
* People I've known throughout my years, growing up, etc. (2,000)
* People I've met through business -- mostly through BridgePath, my last software company (2,000)
* People that have heard me speak, read my articles published in newspapers, seen me on TV, etc. and that would actually remember me (3,000)

so at most, AT MOST, I am known by 19,000 people.

However, any educated person (even me) knows of far more than 19,000 people (when you think of all the movie stars, politicians, athletes, etc. that you know of). Therefore, I am not famous ... maybe I'm "almost famous."

The one caveat to fame is what I call the "Memento rule of 25,000." If you recall, the lead character from the movie Memento couldn't remember anyone except himself (and he barely even remembered that!). He only knew one person but was maybe known by 50 people. He's still not famous because the Memento rule says that you have to be known by at least 25,000 people no matter what to qualify for Hoffman's definition of famous.

Fast facts in microenterprise development

Fast Facts -- Some interesting facts on microenterprise development put together by the Aspen Institute.

Sent to us by David Rand -- Director of MicroMentor in San Francisco.

How to sell via e-mail

Auren on How to sell via e-mail (from the book "21st Century Selling" put together by Joe Cullinane):

http://www.summation.net/emailselling.html

Party of the Decade

RSVP for the Party of the Decade -- on November 11, 2011:

http://evite.citysearch.com/ggparty@eudoramail.com/2011Party

FOA: Duf Sundheim, Chairman of the California Republican Party

Duf Sundheim
friend of Auren

I was lucky enough to meet Duf Sundheim about two years ago. Price Roe (see Sept 2002 Friend of Auren) and I just wrote a memo about the awesome gains of the Democratic Party in the San Francisco Bay Area -- particularly in the tech community. Duf read the article, latched onto it, and (along with Floyd Kvamme and Gregory Slayton) helped inspire Price and I to start Lead21 (formerly known as the New Century Leadership Circle) as a counterweight.

At the time, Duf was the Chairman of the Lincoln Club and did a great job taking that organization to the next level. A former Stanford football player, Duf's incredible intensity has made him successful in business as well as politics. Last January, Duf won election to become Chairman of the California Republican Party and set upon a long march to rebuild the GOP in this state.

In the midst of his plans, Duf was thrust to the front lines because of the recall of Governor Davis. He has been a healthy steward of the party throughout -- and at the same time he remains a committed public servant and a close friend of Lead21.

Though the California Republican Party still has a long way to go to be competitive again in this state, Duf's strong stewardship should get it there.

Malcolm Gladwell Phone Book Test

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the Tipping Point, wrote his famous Phone Book Test for Connectors:

250 last names ... drawn randomly from a New York City phone ... Gladwell writes:

Go down the list and give yourself a point every time you see a surname that is shared by someone you know. (The definition of "know" here is very broad. It is if you sat down next to that person on a train, you would know their name if they introduced themselves to you, and they would know your name.) Multiple names count. If the name is Johnson, in other words, and you know three Johnsons, you get three points. The idea is that your score on this test should roughly represent how social you are. It's a simple way of estimating how many friends and acquaintances you have.

I tried the test myself and scored a 98 (see data below for a full breakdown). Though 98 would represent one of the most connected people Gladwell ever met, I assure you I am not that connected ... one of the last names that Gladwell randomly selected was "Hoffman" -- my last name.

My breakdown:

Bailey	2
Bell	1
Butler	2
Cohen	4
Cook	3
Chen	5
Chung	1
Diaz	1
Duncan	4
Daly	1
Ellis	3
Friendman	5
Gruber	1
Garcia	1
Gilbert	2
Hawkins	3
Henderson	2
Hoffman	12
Jacobs	1
Johnson	10
Kahn	2
Lin	3
Liu	1
Levine	2
Michaels	1
Marin	1
Murphy	1
Mendoza	1
Perkins	3
Rader	1
Ray	1
Ritter	1
Rose	1
Rosenfeld	2
Roberts	1
Shapiro	1
Spencer	1
Stewart	3
Weinstein 	1
Wang	5
Weed	1



Total	98

Junior State of America (JSA)

I recently joined the board of trustees of the Junior State of America. JSA is the largest organization in the country that is run by high school students. It promotes debate, political dialog, model UN, model Congress, etc. amongst high school students.

JSA's motto – "Democracy is not a spectator sport" – means a lot to me. It was something that I personally rallied to when I was in high school – as I am a product of the unique JSA experience.

This nonpartisan organization, now in its 69th year, helps active thousands of high school students every year. And the board of trustees, which is chaired by Mike McCurry, has the awesome responsibility to help continue to have a stable and well-run organization that help school students can count on.

Do Americans need more vacation?

Around August every year we hear the cat-calls that Americans are too overworked ...

In August, citizens of France take the entire month off and lounge around eating their brie cheese, sipping their fine wine, and generally enjoy themselves ... or so the story goes ...

But my question is: are Americans really overworked? Do we need a 6 more weeks of vacation and a 35-hour work-week?

Most people will tell you that they want more time off -- I mean, who doesn't? But what will people do with this time off? The most common answers: "I'll spend more time with my family", "I'll bond with my kids", "I'll work on that writing project", "I'll learn another language" ....

So, the question really is: what do first world citizens actually do with their time off?

The answer: watch TV

That's right: most people spend more of their off time watching TV than anything else (except sleeping). People now have 500 channels ...

Some people broaden that to:
* listening to music
* playing video games
* online chat

So, my question is -- if we had more time off would most of that be sucked up by the television?

the reality is: people have a ton of time on their hands. people are looking for ways to spend their free time (see the rise in gym memberships, yoga, wine clubs, skiing in Tahoe, sunning in the Hamptons, etc.). for instance -- look at the rise of the Open Source movement -- just look at Linux -- an incredibly amazing platform built by people with enough spare time on their hands to program something incredibly complex for free!

case in point -- check out Wikipedia -- i love this site! Thousands of people collaborating to create an extremely useful encyclopedia -- in 41 languages .... all working for free, all the content is free, all for the betterment of man ...

so do we really need more free time? If Americans are going to spend their time creating open source software and doing volunteer work, I'd say yes. But if we are going to spend more time watching TV and playing video games, I say "get back to work!"