Three new people contacted me for the first time last week. I set up a meeting with the first one about his book idea. He failed to show up for the meeting, then asked to reschedule. I rescheduled. He failed to show up again. The second one asked for my opinion on a topic by…
Each of us has made mistakes. How we own up to such mistakes makes a great deal of difference in our lives. I was reminded of this yesterday as I watched South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem attempt not to talk about her imaginary meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, as documented in her…
I’ve changed the way I approach meeting people. Accomplishing my stated objectives is secondary. My primary goal is to answer this question: What can I learn? I’ve always been curious. But it took a long time to get to this point. It has made me a different kind of person. Better, I think. The smartest…
Newsletter 41: When you subtract AI from writing, what’s left is creativity; ending garbage books; remembering Daniel Dennett; surprising truths about book sales; plus three people to follow and three books to read. Soon, only creative writers will remain. Huzzah! There are things AI excels at. Summarizing long documents. Finding patterns. Turning formulaic content into…
I woke up this morning to no power and no heat for the second time in two weeks. A Nor’easter snowstorm hit the Maine coast and knocked out the power again (last time it was an ice storm). Despite what you may have heard about Maine, my experience of winter in Portland isn’t much different…
Newsletter 37: Ignorance amid abundant knowledge, traumatic writer’s block, burgeoning book bans, plus three people to follow and three books to read. The problem with ignorance Ignorance bugs the hell out of me. The urge to eliminate ignorance is the driving force in my career and much of my life. This is a good thing….
Looking back over 16 years and 57 book projects, one big favorite is a book I edited: Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business by Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine. If you’re a writer or editor, this reflection about that book may get you thinking differently about your own…
I’ve met thousands of people over my long career — colleagues, clients, direct reports, bosses, executives, and “influencers” of every stripe. I also have a really poor memory for people. So I’m a decent test case for the question, “Who will remember you?” If I remember somebody after decades of work, they were truly memorable….
Here’s the scene. Two analysts have been tapped to address the San Francisco chapter of an industry organization. The rules are: you have ten minutes to speak, and you cannot use slides. The organization is for executives and managers of the cable television industry. One of the analysts is me. I analyze the television industry…