Back in the 90’s Faith Popcorn wrote The Popcorn Report, a best-selling business book on popular trends, where she made a strong distinction between mere passing fads and longer-lasting societal trends. Her analysis was so effective that even today you can see that…
International Business
Getting the Black Swan Wrong in Russia
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CNBC’s article on the “three black swans” [1] that Russia’s banks are apparently facing is a perfect example of getting the entire black swan concept wrong. Herman Gref is quoted as saying that Sherbank is facing “not one Black Swan but…
Entrepreneurship, Marketing
When you’re asked to work “for the exposure”
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Getting asked to do gigs for free? It’s a very common thing for artists and generally any skilled professional. I’ve learned to take advantage of these requests rather than let them take advantage of me, mostly by two general approaches I’ll…
Product Design
How Asana Could Work Offline
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I’ve become a big fan of Asana in the last few months, going from a casual user with a small group to incorporating more people. I call it “Facebook for getting s**t done.” Still it has one major flaw, which…
Business 101, Productivity and Getting Things Done
How to Write (When You Don’t Wanna): 8 Tips
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The best fundamental advice I got about writing was from my dad: “Just write something.” He explained that the hardest part of writing was going from nothing to something. Once you have something on the page, it becomes easier and…
Entrepreneurship, Productivity and Getting Things Done
Outsourcing the Laundry
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Should entrepreneurs do their own laundry? Of course this question applies to anyone whose profession requires a jam-packed schedule with barely any non-work time. The question most recently came up as a response to my recent post about choosing tasks…