“Without politics there is no freedom.” — John Ashcroft, Famous Missourian.
Wasn’t Roy Cohn from Missouri?
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Tag Archives: Quotable
Scott Adam’s secret to success
“My other superpower is that I don’t mind embarrassing myself in public. If I had to pick one quality that best predicts success (other than wanting to be successful) it would be the willingness to risk embarrassment.”
— Scott Adams
The Village
“Sometimes we don’t do things we want to do so others won’t know we want to do them.”
Does public broadcasting need a new name?
“…broadcasters (should) start viewing themselves as multimedia companies, and even changing their names to help spread the message both internally and externally. The internet is NOT broadcasting, and the more we understand that, the quicker we’ll get on with business models that’ll meet our needs in a Media 2.0 world.” – Terry Heaton
A couple of years ago we dropped the “network” from one of our networks because it was felt to be somewhat…limiting. No long reflective of what we are or are becoming.
Dave Winer on blogging
Dave Winer’s simple explanation of blogging and OPML:
First, create a new weblog on one of the free services, like Blogger or MSN Spaces. It takes about five minutes, and is about as hard as creating an email address on Yahoo or Hotmail, and represents less of a commitment. Then make your first post, something like Hello There, or Testing 1-2-3. Once you’ve verified that it works, you can stop there.
Then someday, when you’re in the shower or lying in bed in the morning and get an idea that you wish you could tell everyone, remember that you have a blog, and go to the computer, and write it up and publish it. That actually feels pretty good, even if you think no one will read it, because you got it off your chest.
Then in a few days Google will probably visit your site and index the post, and then when someone searches for that subject, your page will come up, and maybe you’ll pass that idea on to someone who can use it, or meet someone who agrees, or someone who disagrees. And that’s blogging, and that’s all it is.
As for OPML:
Did you ever have an idea you wanted to post on your blog that didn’t seem big enough to be an essay? An idea that could be expressed in a sentence, or less, but still deserved to get out there? In writing school they teach that less is better. If you can say something in three words instead of twenty, say it in three. It communicates better. Well, none of the existing blogging tools can do little sentence or phrase-size blog posts.
Dave Winer on blogging
Henry forwarded a link to a Slate piece that suggests blogs –as businesses– have peaked. If you’re a regular, you aleady know my thoughts on blogging. Companies with a clue, confidence and a good blogger… can/will make valuable use of blogs. As to the Slate article, I refer you to Dave Winer who sees blogging as “part of life”:
Blogs are where new businesses will spring from. Think of blogs as being like dorm rooms, and remember that’s where Dell Computer came from. Blogging communities are incubators. Some communities incubate negative stuff, plenty of those, but occasionally a blogging community serves as the launching pad for something good. There will be a steady stream of those, and they will be on the cover of magazines, and will belong there.
Advice for new graduates from Scott Adams
- Teamwork is what you call it when you trick other people into ignoring their priorities in favor of yours.
- Leadership is a form of evil. No one needs to lead you to do something that is obviously good for you.
- Business success is mostly about waiting for something lucky to happen and then taking credit.
- Preparing a Powerpoint presentation will give you the sweet, sweet illusion of productivity.
I also kind of liked one of the commnets: “Unprofessional” and “passionate” is the same thing.
U. S. Founding Fathers
Scott Adams insists we must look at the the actions of our Founding Fathers in order to understand their ideals:
1. Slavery – excellent source of poontang
2. Women voting? That’s crazy talk!
3. People who don’t own land suck
4. A good way to change tax policy is through violence
5. It’s not really crossdressing if you also wear manly boots.
6. Treason is okay if you have a good reason.
7. No one wants to sit next to Ben Franklin
Like Adams, I’m glad they did the whole create-a-new-country thing… just don’t go nuts with the “this country was founded on sacred ideals put forth by our Founding Fathers” riff. They were a practical lot.
The Art of Demotivation
From the folks at Despair, Inc., a business book that’s “So Dangerous We Had to Put a Lock on It.”
“Ironically, managers attempting to motivate employees by increasing their self-esteem only compound the very problem they seek to solve. Reinforcing employee delusions of grandeur only increases their irrational sense of entitlement to the wealth, stature and privilege that justice dictates be reserved for the truly accomplished and inarguably worthy: namely, Executives.”
These are the same funny kids that produce the motivational calendars and posters.
Quality: The Race for Quality Has No Finish Line – so Technically it’s More Like a Death March.
I’ll share nuggets from TAOD here.
Scott Adams on Winning
“All I ask from life is that I be slightly less miserable than the people who hate me. I call that winning.”
— Scott Adams