Tim Bray on how so many are doing Enterprise IT wrong, most notably not learning anything from the dynamic language web culture and the small, light, simple, iterative mindset of modern web dev shops: Here’s a thought experiment: Suppose you asked one of the blue-suit solution providers to quote you on building Ravelry or Twitter
Read More...Tyler Cowen with some propositions about the economics of advice and how advice relates to understanding fellow humans a bit better: 1. You don’t know what a person really thinks until you hear his or her advice. Along these lines, if you really want to know what a person thinks, ask for advice and he
Read More...As always, Bruce Schneier has some poignant analysis of the attempted terror attack on an aircraft headed from Amsterdam to Detroit over the holidays. Once a society starts circumventing its own laws, the risks to its future stability are much greater than terrorism. Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat.
Read More...Jim Lehrer’s own rules for his approach to journalism, spoken publicly during his final broadcast on Dec. 4: “I promise you, one thing is never going to change. And that’s our mission. People often ask me if there are guidelines in our practice of what I like to call MacNeil/Lehrer journalism. Well, yes, there are.
Read More...Foreign Policy asked their top Global Thinkers to recommend their favorite – or most important – books. The responses range from children’s books to biographies to policy manuals to fantasy novels. Here’s the full list of their suggestions.
Read More...Excellent essay by Paul Rand about how demanding many solutions to a problem leads to lower quality, waste and confusion. One of the more common problems which tends to create doubt and confusion is caused by the inexperienced and anxious executive who innocently expects, or even demands, to see not one but many solutions to
Read More...One of the most important things that apply in all aspects of life and business is the quality of integrity. While I continue to learn each day the importance of integrity and how to both teach and share the importance of integrity, nothing can be more rewarding than when a customer defends your integrity. So
Read More...Two bits of exciting news to share with everyone today. First, we’ve won SE Michigan’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For for the fourth year in a row. We’re excited about that, because no matter what we do or why we do it, it’s not worth it if the work experience (and, by
Read More...Article in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune on 37signals’ CEO Office Hours. 37signals is an outstanding example of a company that has very literally embraced the transparency, authenticity and openness other companies claim to want but seldom demonstrate.
Read More...From swissmiss comes the following video, a great example of (exercise in?) modern culture-building. Performances like this illustrate a company’s culture and personality more than any website, blog or piece of marketing collateral could ever hope to.
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