Linkfest for Thursday:

• This week in science podcast. If you want your science news infused with a sense of humor, this is for you.
• Surprise - drug research biased. Apparently the efficacy of anti-depressant drugs has been overstated by the companies that make them.
• Cool Tools. Kevin Kelly, a founder of Wired magazine, runs this website of smart tools and gadgets, mostly non-hi-tech, for people who like to work smart. There’s an e-mail newsletter too (Hat tip to Lynn).
• Moleskinerie. One of my favorite cool tools are my moleskine notebooks, and this blog is about the many different ways people use ‘em.

Posted in linkfest | No Comments »

Check out isolatr. Currently in public beta. Everything you need to know can be found here.

Posted in Web 2.0 / social software, humor | 2 Comments »

The Times Online has a short piece about the dangers of Google dominance for education, called White bread for young minds. It quotes a professor, Tara Brabazon, concerned about the trends:

Google offers easy answers to difficult questions. But students do not know how to tell if they come from serious, refereed work or are merely composed of shallow ideas, superficial surfing and fleeting commitments.

It seems unfair to blame Google for this. But in reading the article and some background on Brabazon, it doesn’t seem she blames Google either. It’s the author of the Times article who focuses the blame on Google.

In truth school textbooks are notoriously poor sources of information on history - as are television and films, mediums children spend as may hours getting educated by as their classrooms. Really what it seems she wants, is to teach children how to interpret all kinds of media. According to the article:

Her own students are banned from using Wikipedia or Google as research tools in their first year of study, but instead are provided with 200 extracts from peer-reviewed printed texts at the beginning of the year, supplemented by printed extracts from eight to nine texts for individual pieces of work.

I get the ban - but the article frames this wrong. The ban is to help people to understand what’s being banned, not to ban it forever. As best I can tell Brabazon is trying to teach a kind of
media literacy for research. The highlight of the article for me is this quote:

We need to teach our students the interpretative skills first before we teach them the technological skills. Students must be trained to be dynamic and critical thinkers rather than drifting to the first site returned through Google

And no technology can do our critical thinking for us - we have to depend on our brains for that one. However, there have been advocates of mandatory media literacy education for a long time. The core theme being to teach children how to compare sources, deconstruct advertising, and be savvy about what they read & see, instead of wasting time training students in rote research methods devoid of critical thinking.

Given the context, I’d hoped Tara Brabazon, the professor quoted in the article, had a blog, perhaps to respond to the thin, biased tone of the article. But her site lists only her books and CV.

She writes quite well and I’m intrigued enough by her smart, funny articles like Socrates in earpods: the i-podification of education to read more of her work.

Her most recent book is called the University of Google, which from the description advocates the teaching of research, but I couldn’t find a table of contents or even a review of the book. The best sumation of Tara’s own thinking on the issue was from these notes on a lecture she gave about the book.

Posted in Teaching/Training, creative thinking, philosophy | 9 Comments »

This was a special talk for two reasons. First, as my opening story explains, I delivered a special surprise to someone in the audience. Second, the 9am crowd was surprisingly lively and helped me put on a good show.

The talk covers a few topics from The Myths of Innovation, including epiphanies, the problems with innovation history, and many true stories about how great innovations actually happened.

Podcast (70 minutes, 30mb), Slides and description.

(Skip to the 11:05 mark in the podcast to bypass intros).

Posted in Innovation, Myths of Innovation, On Tour | No Comments »

There’s a very good piece in Wired on how the i-phone was made. Unlike most coverage of the i-phone and Apple in general, this piece explores the early mistakes that were made, the rejections Jobs and Apple faced, and how they managed to pull off the deal with AT&T. It’s good stuff and avoids most of the easy myths around how innovation happens.

Posted in Innovation, Myths of Innovation | No Comments »

Here’s the good stuff I’ve found this week:

• Conversations on cell phones cause traffic jams. Not a surprise, but this study says hands-free doesn’t matter.
• Funny list of bad types of public speakers. I make a living as a public speaker, so this was a good read.
• Story of a self-published book in progress. Interesting for you writers out there as it’s a candid tale of authorial frustration.
• Bill Gates makes fun of himself as his steps down from MSFT. Still not sure I like the guy, but in some ways he’s way humbler than Steve Jobs.
• Super interesting video project of people judging others based on appearance. If you liked the book Blink you’ll both dig this and be terrified (how can this instinctive behavior be good)?.
• The folly of airport security. A good summation of the charade that goes on at American airports.

Posted in linkfest | No Comments »

A few weeks ago I posted about a comment lottery, an experiment in rewarding participation on the site - here are the randomly chosen winners:

Steve Myers
Kristi P
JKash
Elaine Nelson
James Shrenk
Keith Instone
Rob Grady

If you won, you should have an e-mail in your inbox asking for your address :)

Posted in Myths of Innovation, this site | 3 Comments »

Reading my first book is infuriating at times, yet I’m happy about it. How can this be?

Given the unusual task of revising something already published (in this case, a book), there are two likely ways to feel about it:

1. This is great! I don’t want to change a thing.
2. This sucks! I want to rewrite this thing from scratch.

The first case is only superficially good. If I can’t see ways to improve the writing, or to give better advice, then what have I learned about writing (or management) in the last three years? Not much.

The second case, while painful, illustrates growth. If I don’t like it, it suggests I’m capable, now, of making the same points in less words, from a better perspective, or with a clearer structure that’s more fun to read.

In truth, the book is what it is. I’m not the same guy I was when I wrote the thing, and part of what makes the book good is who I was. It has to fit together and I don’t want to wander into George Lucas territory. But it’s fun snipping sentences, tightening paragraphs, updating references, and getting those exercises in there. I get to play my own editor for awhile.

My point I suppose is it’s healthy to go back to old writing and cringe. If you’re a blogger, go back and read your first posts - you’ll laugh and cry, I’m sure. That’s good - you’re still alive and getting better.

Posted in Making things happen, On writing, art of project management | 2 Comments »

The revision of Making things happen (formerly known as the art of project management) is wrapping up.

As a last call for anyone with a correction, typo, or reference suggestion they’ve found in their edition of the book, Speak up now! Anything that you’ve though should or could be fixed is fair game.

Reward: If you’re the first to suggest a correction that gets made, I’ll get you a copy of the updated book!

Deadline: 1/10/2008.

Leave a comment if you’ve got something. Cheers.

Posted in Making things happen, art of project management | 3 Comments »

The calendar for this year is filling up, here’s what’s on the calendar for the next few months:

• January 22nd, Vancouver BC, VanUE - Creative thinking hacks (public & free)
• February 11-13, Wellington, NZ, Webstock - Myths of Innovation
• March 23, Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie Mellon University, Myths of Innovation (public & free)
• April 22-24, Web 2.0 Expo, San Francisco, CA, How to innovate on time

If you want me at your event, here’s some info for ya.

Posted in On Tour | 5 Comments »

I’ll be at VanUE, the Vancouver UX chapter, speaking about creative thinking hacks. Here’s the excerpt:

Creative Thinking Hacks
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 — 6:00 to 7:30pm
There will be networking from 5:30 to 6:00pm.
Venue: Vancouver Film school.
Cost: Free!

Description: This new, high risk talk is a volitle combination of never before seen excerpts from the best selling book “The Myths of Innovation”, combined with the essence of Scott’s popular “How to find and manage ideas” course at the University of Washington. It will simultaneously demystify creative thinking, provide tips and tricks for finding ideas, provoke wild opinions and comical rants, and explore how to become more powerful at the creative aspects of your work and life. Format: Short interactive lecture, with extended Q&A (So bring your list of “things i always wanted to know about creative thinking but were too afraid or drunk to ask”).

VanUE provided a great crowd last year, look forward to speaking there again. RSVP here.

Posted in On Tour, creative thinking | No Comments »

• Innovative minds don’t think alike. I have a love / hate relationship with this article. Can you count the number of innovation myths here?
• Google is God. Some interesting stats and throwing down of the M word in comments. Also see this for a retort.
• What have you changed your mind about. Why? The latest question from the folks at edge.
• David Simon, Producer of The Wire (my favorite TV show), on the importance of dissent.

Posted in linkfest | 2 Comments »