It’s Friday the 13th, the power is out in the Hollywood Hills and Kurt Vonnegut is dead. Kurt has enriched my life with his books, his point of view and his influence. Over the years, I’ve grown cynical yet hopeful through his musings. 20 years ago Slaughterhouse Five ripped the top of my head off. …

Today’s USA Today Life section carried a positive review of Send: The Essential Guide To Email For Office & Home by David Shipley (New York Times editor) and Will Schwalbe (Hyperion’s Editor in Chief). This book covers one of my fave topics, email etiquette as well as practical ways to think about the medium/tool. The …

Here’s another installation in my rules of email etiquette: Don’t reply to say “thanks”. One of my basic rules of email is to let the thread (the back and forths) stop. Don’t get in the last word, even if it is “thanks”. DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR? You are working on a spreadsheet (and consulting paper) …

I just received LCD Soundsystem’s new CD, Sound Of Silver, and I love it! I picked up the record after reading rave reviews on the new record, including a feature in the Seattle Times. This band is James Murphy’s bright idea. The style is dance punk or indie dance — either one works for me. …

Very simple idea for the day, reuse. I was inspired reading a recent post on Seth Godin’s blog related to No Impact Man. I read the same article on the way back to the USA this weekend and I also think that this is a big deal. Use not, waste not, deplete not. These are …

Yesterday I gave a speech to a group of Scandanavian telecom execs in Helsinki. My good friends at Nokia invited me to keynote at their annual Winterconference client event. As I prepared for the trip and consulted with Erich Hugo from Nokia, he had one simple piece of advice for me: speak slowly. Everyone in …

For Your Consideration is the latest edition of Christopher Guest’s twisted and cruel mind. Many of you might know him as half of the legendary Spinal Tap, and producer of all time sidesplitters such as Best In Show, Waiting For Guffman and The Might Wind. In their most recent romp, Guest and all-star troupe (Fred …

A few years ago, I read a brilliant book by Bill Jensen titled Simplicity. There are many great ideas in the book, but one of them changed my life for the better. At the time (2002), I was covered up in corporate emails (200 or more a day, not counting spam). With all the changes …

In Faith and Fortune, author Marc Gunther tells the story about Barbara Waugh, who as a non-executive, drove huge changes at HP. Barbara was a career activist for the environment and diversity who ended up at HP twenty years ago. She used street theatre techniques to demonstrate to HP execs issues within the company related …

BOYE band = Band Of Youthful Energy. I love new music because it has so much youthful energy. When I discovered Nirvana in the early 90’s, it opened my eyes to teenage spirit. The Arcade Fire shouted to me two years ago and opened my eyes to see youth’s concept of death and life. These …