The tricks I use are:

• Free/Sex. Put the catchiest words and phrases at the beginning and end of paragraphs and sentences. This is either trigger stuff like free/sex or statistically improbable/emotional phrases like “giraffes don’t puke” or “stop killing babies.”
• Use emphasis in the middle of sentences–stuff like putting the most interesting phrases in bold. Highlight whatever could spark interest.
• Pay attention to the visual look of your paragraphs–for example the effect that spacing, paragraphs and dashes have–because that’s what ultimately drives eyeballs to one part more than the other.

Craft your paragraphs to put the catchy stuff at the beginning if possible.

Use short paragraphs that are easy to skim. That fixes a lot already. Then shift the exciting words to the power places in the paragraphs. Tighten things up by moving the emotional phrases to the most skim-friendly locations to bait the reader.

Finally, make sure you don’t bury the lead. So don’t say:

One of the most interesting things I did in high school was para-sailing, and it’s amazing how much the lessons I learned and friends I made have stayed with me through my business career.

Instead you can try taking the unexpected word para-sailing and putting it in the beginning, since “one of the most interesting things” is actually a really boring phrase:

Para-sailing wasn’t just one of the most interesting things I did in high school. It’s also amazing how much the lessons I learned and friends I made have stayed with me through my business career.

The paragraph could still use work, but in terms of sheer skimmability, most people will find it easier to detect the most interesting part, “para-sailing,” when it’s at the beginning rather than buried in the paragraph. And if you get them reading the first word, they might just keep reading.

Why not accompany online news of tragedies with a simple “Click here to help!” button?

I’m surprised no one is doing this yet.

It’s old news that the news industry is transforming. Newspapers are dying out, and only a few, such as the New York Times, seem to be truly re-inventing themselves online. But even online, the news has seen a major paradigm shift away from the hierarchical top-down, publisher-consumer model to the “free as in beer,” peer-to-peer model of pseudo-journalism popularized by blogs and now Twitter. Through all this, the big news networks are still asking one question: “How can we offer added value beyond the blogs?”

While blogs have added a lot to the global information flow, I think that responsible, peer-reviewed, accountable journalism has an important place in news reporting. But it’s hard to quantify how much better professional journalism is than the news and commentary (as well as hasty rumour-mongering) of the blogosphere.

The irony is that although the news of older media focused on an information flow going mostly one-way, true interactivity is highly resource intensive, something larger companies could offer more easily than amateur bloggers. Online news could go a lot further towards integrating people back into the news, connecting us with our own local communities, involving us more directly in the world affairs that used to merely depress us. We’ve seen a few attempts at this with the crisis in Haiti, but it could go so much further.

• “Click here to donate” buttons for worldwide tragedies such as hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. In fact, newspapers could set up their own charities in order to take and track donations even before disaster relief funds are set up.
• “Click here to volunteer” buttons to join volunteer efforts.

Imagine: no longer frustrating, the news could be an uplifting experience.

Great. It’s a step up from the blame-deflection attitudes of past decades. And leaders who calmly admit they made poor decisions can actually seem more confident. But don’t take it too far. There’s a reason why people used to hide their mistakes, and it’s not just about deception. It’s that we expect others to make mistakes. But if you can hide the effects of your screw-up from me, as far as I’m concerned it didn’t happen.

Don’t be that guy who worriedly over-shares about his inadequacies. Be the one who smoothes over minor bumps quickly and invisibly so that no one even notices the problem. That way, when it comes time to tell people about the mistake you couldn’t magically fix, they’ll take it as a sign of strength.

It’s easy. I prefer the HTML widget because you can play with it a bit more within your own design, etc: http://twitter.com/widgets/html_widget

I’ve made a quick hack to the JavaScript that comes with the widget:

1. No replies – I didn’t want it to display replies to other Twitter users. After all, the people seeing these messages on my site will have no idea who these other users are, or probably even what the strange @ symbol means.
2. Wrap the links – Putting the full URL for the links seemed archaic, so I took the URL for links out of the message, and instead wrapped the whole Tweet in a link, if there was a link in it.

It wasn’t difficult but I thought I’d share the code in case you want to do the same!

function twitterCallback(tweets) {
  var statusHTML = [];
  for (var i=0; i<tweets.length; i++){
    var username = tweets[i].user.screen_name;
        //Skip replies
        if (tweets[i].text.search(/^@/) != -1) {
            continue;
        }
        //If there's a link, remove URL from message and the make whole tweet a link
    var url = tweets[i].text.match(/((https?|s?ftp)\:\/\/[^"\s\<\>]*[^.,;'">\:\s\<\>\)\]\!])/g);
    var status = tweets[i].text.replace(/((https?|s?ftp|ssh)\:\/\/[^"\s\<\>]*[^.,;'">\:\s\<\>\)\]\!])/g, '');
        if (url) {
            status = '<a href="' + url + '">' + status + '</a>'
        }
        //Push the Tweet into the status box
    statusHTML.push('<li><span>'+status+'</span> <a style="font-size:85%" href="http://twitter.com/'+username+'/statuses/'+tweets[i].id+'"><em>'+relative_time(tweets[i].created_at)+'</em></a></li>');
  }
  document.getElementById('twitter_update_list').innerHTML = statusHTML.join('');
}

In order to use it, you can enclose it in script tags like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
--Script Here--
</script>

In my case, I put it in a separate .js file so it can be shared by different pages.

Let me know if it’s of use.

But if life is a game, it’s not really the kind game theorists look it. It’s less like chess and more like… Calvinball–and entrepreneurs need to keep this in mind. There’s a very insightful conversation described in The Black Swan that I enjoyed reading, between the author Nassim Nicholas Taleb (“NNT”), a successful businessman from the Bronx named “Fat Tony,” and “Dr. John,” an engineer working as an actuary in an insurance company:

NNT: Assume that a coin is fair, i.e., has an equal probability of coming up heads or tails when flipped. I flip it ninety-nine times and get heads each time. What are the odds of my getting tails on my next throw?

Dr. John: Trivial question. One half, of course, since you are assuming 50 percent odds for each and independence between draws.

NNT: What do you say, Tony?

Fat Tony: I’d say no more than 1 percent, of course.

NNT: Why so? I gave you the initial assumption of a fair coin, meaning that it was 50 percent either way.

Fat Tony: You are either full of crap or a pure sucker to buy that “50 pehcent” business. The coin gotta be loaded. It can’t be a fair game.

NNT: But Dr. John said 50 percent.

Fat Tony: (whispering in NNT’s ear): I know these guys with the nerd examples from the bank days. They think way too slow. And they are too commoditized. You can take them for a ride.

You can simply call it “street smarts” or “thinking outside the box” but that’s the kind of big-picture thinking that seems to help people in business–and in the game of life, the game without rules.

Back when I was in university, a friend of mine–to protect his name I’ll call him “Naaron Drigglenslaw“–and I were interested in expanding the scope of our interactions with the computer network of our alma mater. He ended up succeeding in bypassing the login screen merely by pressing Control-Break, a key combo that in DOS was originally used to end programs. I was frustratingly jealous because it never occurred to me that any self-respecting programmer would make a SECURITY screen vulnerable to a interrupt like that. It’s kind of like building a steel padlock that requires two keys and a combination, but also spontaneously opens with insistent shaking.

But Naaron didn’t make the assumption that the login screen was built intelligently. Looking back on my software development days, his was the smart guess. He now runs a great Interweb company which I’ll call the “Miracle Factory,” not to be confused with “Miracle Whip” which is a nutritional supplement for university students. Naaron’s company produces cool things like Ask500People.com.

Curiously, they don’t make any security software.

While Seisetsu was the master of Engaku in Kamakura he required larger quarters, since those in which he was teaching were overcorwded. Umezu Seibei, a merchant of Edo, decided to donate five hundred pieces of gold called ryo toward the construction of a more commodious school. This money he brought to the teacher.

Seisetus said: “All right. I will take it.”

Umezu gave Seisetsu the sack of gold, but he was dissatisfied with the attitude of the teacher. One might live a whole year on three ryo, and the merchant had not even been thanked for five hundred.

“In that sack are five hundred ryo,” hinted Umezu.
“You told me that before,” replied Seisetsu.
“Even if I am a wealthy merchant, five hundred ryo is a lot of money,” said Umezu.
“Do you want me to thank you for it?” asked Seisetsu.
“You ought to,” replied Umezu.
“Why should I?” inquired Seisetsu. “The giver should be thankful. (From Zen Flesh, Zen Bones which you can read here.)

Malcom Gladwell’s famous book The Tipping Point put forward the idea that small numbers of people have unusual influence on the spread of ideas and even disease.  However, recent work by researcher Duncan Watts, described in an article in Fast Company (Feb 2008) suggests that these “Influentials” don’t really have as much influence as previously thought.  In fact, anyone can become a major transmitter of an idea.

While the FC article brings up some important counter-arguments to the Tipping Point suggestion that viral effects depend on a small percentage of individuals, it only partly covers the importance of Stickiness.  In the Tipping Point, Gladwell explains that the “Law of the Few” isn’t enough to make a new product or idea popular: it first has to already be “sticky,” meaning that it’s the kind of thing that people are highly inclined to remember and share with others.  However, recent work by researcher Duncan Watts suggests that

This comes up briefly in the FC article: “Watt’s theory says the emergence of a trend depends not on Influentials, but on the susceptibility [emphasis added] of the public to the ‘virus.’

That’s basically what Stickiness is.  If the public is open to accepting and re-transmitting an idea, then anyone who sees it will be more likely to share with others.  That depends a lot on how memorable the idea or product is, and the context (another Gladwell “law”).

The major contribution of Watt’s research seems to be that there’s a lot more randomness going on than the Tipping Point would have you believe.  Sometimes great ideas get ignored, and sometimes dumb ideas get spread through dumb luck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicta_Boelcke

I find it really interesting that in business, often it’s about “fractal”-based success. That is, just as fractals are complex graphics based on very simple rules, business strategy is about learning to use a few extremely important maxims extremely consistently. Sort of like, sure 80% of your decisions and actions might not fall within these, but your ultimate maxims decide your fate in those 20% of the decisions that make 80% or more of the difference. The maxims basically prevent you from making really dumb decisions in the situations that are most likely to impact your success.

I think it’s a big thing, the “ultimate maxims” thing.

Part of it, that you can see from the “Dicta,” is identifying the key dynamic. In WWI, one of the biggest things was that whoever got behind the other and started shooting first, tended to win. Once you know that, you build an entire strategy around it, and until the situation changes, you have the most effective strategy. In the meantime, a lot of the other people are just trying to “be really good fighters” and so they lose, since they’re concentrating on 100% rather than being nearly perfect at the crucial 20%.

Surprisingly, the Red Baron wasn’t known for being the most brilliant fly-boy, or the most acrobatic pilot.  He was a good shot, and more importantly, a stickler with the rules. The right rules.

Ultimate maxims teach us a lot about how to actually put the 80/20 rule into practice:

1. Figure out the crucial dynamic.
2. Develop a strategy based on exploiting this dynamic.
3. Create a set of maxims that ensure you never screw up the most important things.
4. Follow the maxims more strictly than you’d like to.

To Get Out of Bed. Or Not Get Out of Bed. That Is the Question.

This was one of the earliest business lessons I learned. When I was a university kid, I occasionally supplemented my two part-time jobs with odd jobs at $10/h with a local entrepreneur, doing low-level marketing tasks like passing out fliers. One day Mr. Entrepreneur calls up and says, “I’ve got a job for you, but I can only pay $8/h this time.” I told him I wasn’t interested. I could actually hear his smile on the other end of the phone.

“I see–you won’t get out of bed for less than $10/h, huh?”

That was it, in a nutshell. In that moment I understood BATNAs, BHAGs, and diminishing marginal returns in one intuitive leap. And I got a glimpse of what leadership is about.

The bottom line is asking yourself if what you do is REALLY worth getting out of bed for. What’s your time worth?

That’s a big part of leadership, and entrepreneurship is really just leadership taken to the extreme. Entrepreneurship comes from being driven to spend your time on important things.

That’s why time management for entrepreneurs is a little different from many jobniks. It’s not about seeing how many things you can cram into a day. It’s about deciding which things aren’t worth doing at all, and dropping them.

It’s about deciding what’s worth getting out of bed for, and what’s not.