Saw ‘Appaloosa’ last night, the story of a small town where ruffigans shoot the sheriff and replacements (Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen) are called in to restore law and order. Amazing flick!
Perfect pacing, fascinating characters, an oscar worthy performance by Mortensen, beautiful landscapes, and unexpected twists. Definitely among the five best of 2008, right up there with Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, and Dark Knight.
Recently I watched the entire ‘Band of Brothers’ series for a second time. It’s been years since I’ve seen it, and this time I brought my wife along for the ride. She had never seen it before.
Re-watching movies is a lot like re-reading books, it really tests the quality of the content. Oftentimes what seemed so striking at first, is lost the second time around. Things aren’t as impressive as you remember.
Incredibly, BOB was everything I remembered and more. I laughed, cried, and felt the terror of war all over again. My wife did the same. What an incredible piece of film making. What an incredible group of guys. Such a troubling war.
If you’ve never seen BOB, go directly to your local video store and rent it tonight. Required viewing for all Americans.
PowerPoint — originally a mac application — was purchased by Microsoft in the late 80’s or early 90’s and reached its tipping point around 1993. It became ubiquitous in schools and businesses and it wasn’t long before the term ‘death by Powerpoint’ entered the common vocabulary.
The problem with Powerpoint is that people use it as a kind of big screen word document. They fill the slides with bullet points and company logos. The text closely follows the presenter’s spoken word.
However research has consistently shown that it is much more difficult to understand information being communicated audibly and in writing at the same time (Patty, Anna [2007]. Researcher points finger at Powerpoint. Sydney Morning Herald).
Enter Pecha-Kucha, a valiant attempt to restore order to the presentation world. Pecha-Kucha is a worldwide movement started in the far east, it involves giving presentations in a very particular format: 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds (and automatically advanced). It’s kind of like Haiku for Toastmasters.
The effect of Pecha-Kucha, is that it forces you to tell a story verbally, and support it (rather than mirror it) with your slides. Effectively, the slides end up being pictures or illustrations with little or no text. They reinforce (rather than replace) what the speaker is saying with sticky, creative images that stay with you after the presentation.
The Pecha-Kucha folks aren’t saying that all business presentations should be seven minutes or less, but they are saying that most of us have the whole Powerpoint thing backwards.
Find a Pecha-Kucha gathering near you and get some practice!
I’ve been on a bit of a business book binge lately, and my most recent conquest was ‘Love is the Killer App: How to win Business and Influence Friends‘ by Tim Sanders. ‘Love’ is pretty original, it’s a book about re-humanizing the workplace from the cold, isolated, transitory state that its usually in, to a warm, caring environment.
It walks a fine line between unconventional wisdom (connect your network with your network — and do it all for free) and downright sillyness (the ridiculous discussion of ‘hugging’ for example), occasionally lapsing into the latter.
But mostly, it makes three good points:
1) You need to be reading books all the time so that you have fodder for innovative ideas (”Reading is a source of potency”).
2) You have a network of contacts, instead of thinking about how they can help you — start thinking about how you can help them, especially by connecting them to other people within your network.
3) The modern workplace is far too cold and sterile. It’s important to genuinely care about people and tell them — explicitly — why you appreciate them.
All good advice and all things which we tend to forget when we’re caught up in the race.
Lightly recommended.
Outliers is quite unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Most books which storyboard successful people concentrate on the little “tells” of genius: The quirks, habits, and beliefs which seemed to have propelled their meteoric rise to the top.
With Warren Buffet its always his “aw shucks” humbleness — he still lives in the same little house he bought 50+ years ago. With Bill Belichick its always his dedication to breaking down film, hours and hours toiling in the film room. Steve Jobs had his obsession with simple design. The list goes on and on.
Outliers on the other hand, takes a completely different approach. Instead of focusing on the quirks of successful people, Gladwell says success isn’t so much about the people — as it is the culture and legacy from which they came. Gladwell concedes that that smarts and hard work are key ingredients in success, but insists that opportunities are far more important.
Exhibit A is Chris Langan, the world’s smartest man, and someone mired in mediocrity. Langan — because of his poor rural upbringing — never had many opportunities. He dropped out of college because of a financial aid mixup and couldn’t summon his mother to help him sort it out. Meanwhile Gladwell chronicles a series of lesser lights who had better opportunities, better families, better backgrounds, and made something of them.
It’s a fascinating read which turns everything we know about success on its head. It’s a paradigm shift, the kind of book that comes along only once every few years.
If there is a weakness to Outliers, its that Gladwell is a better storyteller than he is researcher. Occasionally he substitutes a good story for data, and things teeter on the anecdotal.
But no matter, Gladwell is clearly on to something and marshalls more than enough examples to prove it.
Required Reading for All Audiences \ Insanely Recommended.
