One of my favorite change agents, Tom Asacker, has written a short but deep treatise on the meaning of life. He says it's our business to to be useful, honorable and compassionate. Here's what he says about honor: Are you honest, straightforward, trustworthy? Do you play fair? And if not, whom do you think you're fooling? I'll tell you who. You're fooling your kids! You are not doing them a favor by providing for …
Digital Disorder Breeds Collective Intelligence
video courtesy of YouTube user, Michael Wesch When I was in Cambridge last month, I picked up the hardbound first edition of David Weinberger's new book, Everything Is Miscellaneous. I just started reading it, so I'll need to circle back in order to offer deeper analysis, but I can say "so far so good." Here's a pickup from his chapter "Social Knowing" that grabbed me: In a miscellaneous world, an Oz-like authority …
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PepsiCo Charts Path To Sustainable Future
We tend not to think of a firm like PepsiCo as a change agent. Yet, when you consider what they're up to in rural Arizona, that title applies. International Herald Tribune is running a story about the greening of a Frito-Lay's factory in Casa Grande, south of Phoenix. Frito-Lay is embarking on an ambitious plan to change the way this factory operates, and in the process, create a new type of snack: the …
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Truth Against The World
"If you will look, by and large, at the present-day practice of any profession you will see a sordid picture. Absolutely a sordid picture." -Frank Lloyd Wright, speaking in Biloxi, MS in 1949 Few creative professionals in any field fought as long and as hard to maintain their particular vision as did Frank Lloyd Wright. It's amazing what the man achieved in his 92 years on earth, and also amazing what he endured. …
Two Views On Fostering Creativity
"In order to foster creativity we should hire misfits, goad them to fight and pay them to defy convention and undermine the prevailing culture." -Robert Sutton via Lee McEwan "Every morning take Royal Jelly and Omega 3 oil, eat oysters and have a good sex life. Don't care about anything, and never listen to anybody. Be free." -Philippe Starck via Tom Asacker …
You Are Not Your Achievements
The New York Times is running a series called "Age of Riches." Today's installment looks at a weird strain of Silicon Valley youth culture. Max Levchin, who is now 32, is typical of a new generation of junior titans in Silicon Valley who might be called the prematurely rich — techies worth tens of millions of dollars, sometimes more, at an age when many others are just starting to figure out what to do with their …
Want To Put Agencies Out of Business? Make Better Products.
ClickZ had a party on Wednesday night to celebrate 10 years of innovation and excellence in online marketing and advertising. They invited author and academic Douglas Rushkoff to speak. Rushkoff exhorted marketers to convince their clients to come up with compelling products. "Teach them how to get back into the business they are in," he said. "Then you don't have to make up a story about them." I'm attracted to …
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Open Source Concepting a.k.a. Cheap Ideas Aplenty
Matthew Creamer at Ad Age introduces us to OpenAd.net, a Slovenian-based online marketplace where ad and design ideas from about 9,000 creatives worldwide are bought and sold. OpenAd, with input from members in 122 countries, calls itself "the biggest creative department in the world." Our Creatives are advertising specialists. And because we want to provide you with the most complete range of talented individuals …
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