Salespeople 101

Ben Horowitz: “Hire sales people who are really smart problem solvers, but lack courage, hunger and competitiveness, and your company will go out of business.” Getting the mix right is crew–shull!!!!

How Accurate Are Wikipedia’s Science Articles?

Who’s checking the world’s most referenced crowdsourced repository of knowledge? I love crowdsourcing — but with the pretext of “fact” I think Wikipedia should be paying for third-party inspections. For example, what percent of science-related articles are error free? The results of this evaluation should be on every page? Jimmy Wales?

I Just Got ‘Warm Transferred’. It’s A Southern Thing.

I dig language. I dig analyzing human interaction. And I dig marketing. That actually means every interaction with every business is like a moment in the lab for me. So I hit a triple play today when I was on the phone with a State Farm customer service rep. The rep told me she wanted [...]

What’s the Return On Putting Your Pants On In the Morning?

If you’re a marketer and are wondering how worth your time it is (and your budget) to go after the infinite social media channels out there, consider what that presidential candidates are doing this year (as reported by the New York Times in Campaigns Use Social Media to Lure Younger Voters): Barack’s 2012 Campaign Playlist on Spotify Mitt [...]

We Need (And Already Have) Better Economic Indicators

Today, I asked Kathleen, my sensible dental hygienist, how the “dentist business” was going. I honestly didn’t expect the answer I got — I assumed that folks’ teeth would be one of those “recession proof” things. At least regular check ups and cleanings. Not the case: “It’s been different… worst recession I can remember,” she said. According [...]

Tim Burton’s Mom, the Key to Artistic Genius and What’s Wrong with America

Tim Burton — you know, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Batman — well, there’s a great article on NYTimes.com — Tim Burton, at Home in His Own Head — that synthesizes, via a simple anecdote, a few key subjects I’m interested in: Creativity Child development U.S. culture Innovation Tim Burton: “If you look at children’s drawings, they’re all great. And then [...]

Uberconference’s Beta Gamification Is Kinda Awesome

Uberconference's Beta Invitation Gamification

Uberconference is the new kid on the block for online meetings. It looks like it’s gonna kick WebEx in the shins–if not in the mouth. So, yeah, I did this:   And that brought me to this brilliant little game: Promote my interest in Uberconfernce and get points. Get enough and I get ‘to the [...]