Summation

travel hacks: develop work-out routine in your hotel room

i got a twitter reply from Cameron Schaefer with a link to his blog on travel hacks.

one good one i like: Develop a Hotel Room Exercise Routine:

One of the best ways to stay energized and refreshed during long trips is to exercise.  Most hotels have some type of fitness center, but there’s an even simpler solution — work out in your hotel room.  Push-ups and sit-ups are an obvious solution, but I discovered a tool the other month that has made a huge difference in the variety of exercise I can accomplish in a confined space: exercise bands.

More at Cameron's blog.

email sabbatical

I sent an email to a friend today and for the following message (name redacted to protect the innocent):

I'm [names]'s email bot.  I'm here to tell you that [names] is off celebrating [an accomplishment] without the Internet or email.  She will be gone until [return date] and decided to take an email sabbatical. This means that no emails received during her vacation will be stored, including your message. In other words, she will NOT receive your message. It won't be waiting for her because I've been instructed to throw everything away so that she can come home to a little less stress.

If you feel as though your message is still relevant post-[return date], you should email her again then. If it is uber urgent and you know how, contact her mother or brother.

For good reason, [names] believes that a vacation is spoiled by coming home to an inbox that is a mile high filled with requests for things to do. When [names] returns, she will be starting a new job and she wants to be at her best without such a crazy backlog.


I apologize for [names]'s quirkiness. She's definitely an odd duck. But I think that she deserves a proper break from the world. I hope you do too.

:)

my best articles of the last twelve months

"Recessions Promote Breakthrough Innovations":

http://blog.summation.net/summation/2008/03/recessions-prom.html

This was written last March but it is much more relevant today.

 

"It Takes Tech to Be Elected President":

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2008/tc20080822_700775.htm

Much has been written about the Obama technology coup.   This goes over a history of tech innovations in elections.

 

"Social Media Gender Gap":

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080516_580743.htm

Men are from video games and women are from social networks.

 

“How to Hire: When Good Isn't Good Enough”:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080221_017760.htm

With the recession in full swing, it is even more important to hire great people.

 

"You think for yourself but you act like your friends":

http://blog.summation.net/2008/10/you-think-for-yourself-but-you-act-like-your-friends-homophily.html

This was my most talked about blog in 2008 ... on homophily.

 

"Implicit is the New Explicit":

http://blog.summation.net/2008/05/implicit-is-the.html

getting users is hard marketing.   Getting data can be a better strategy.

 

"The art of a job offer: encourage candidates to turn you down":

http://blog.summation.net/2008/06/the-art-of-the-job-offer-encourage-candidates-to-turn-you-down.html

Some non-obvious ideas on how to give a job offer.

Best books I read in 2008

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh

(special thanks to Marc Andreessen for the referral)

 

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

(special thanks to Jeremy Philips for sending me the book and making me read it)

 

How best to explore a new city

When I end up in a new foreign city as a tourist (or the beginning of a business trip) I often seek out one or two people I can go to lunch or dinner with.   That way I learn more about the city and really understand what’s going there.

 

Recently I had an opportunity to go to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) in Vietnam for a few days.  Before going I combed LinkedIn to find people that were just one degree away from me (we knew someone in common). I ended up setting up a lunch with one person who know an entrepreneurial friend and another person who knew a venture capitalist friend. These people were enormously helpful to get a lay of the land, understand the city, and get a good understanding of the culture.

I’ve done this in Santiago, Munich, and many other cities where I did not know many people before arriving.  

If you’ve done this (or you try it) let me know about your experiences (I look forward to learning more).

Hat tip to Scott Bonds who suggested I post this.

Christensen on why bad economic times lead to massive advancement

There was a good piece in yesterday's WSJ on How Hard Times Can Drive Innovation -- a short interview with Clayton Christensen ... worth reading ...

Jonathan Soros has an interesting proposal to elect the President by popular vote by USING the electoral college

In today's Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Soros wrote a really interesting piece about an alternative way to elect the President without having the amend the constitution.    I thought this was really interesting and very thought provoking.

people take happiness cues from their own gender

there has been a lot of talk around last week's NY Times article Strangers May Cheer You Up (and thank you to the dozens of people that sent me the article).

but even more interesting ... and buried mid-way through the article ... is that "people take emotion cues from their own gender" according to Nicholas Christakis (physician at Harvard Medical School and author on the reported study).  

if that is true, it could be really interesting in marketing.   do people more heavily weigh over queues from their own gender too?

(Summation: read the study above if you want to get a better insight on how to make society happy)

you're momma is a snowblower ... yes, we need to tease more

yes ... teasing can be good. or so says this essay from the NY Times:

In Defense of Teasing

in fact, says the author Dacher Keltner (great name!) we are coddling our young too much.

(hat tip and shout-out to Patrick McKenna)

oxytocin increases trust in a financial investment game

maybe using oxytocin might be a good way to reintroduce trust into the financial markets :)

see this oldie but goodie from a 2005 NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/science/02trust.html

(hat tip to Y-Lan Boureau)