Clippings

Interlude:

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein
via interluderetreat.com

Four Days Later, Another Storm

.

 

This storm has made 2009/10 the snowiest on record in our region. As much snow as there is here, cities to the north have seen even more snow. And there's more snow in the forecast. Captions below.

4:00 pm, 2/9. Snow started falling about 40 minutes later.
2/9, 4pm
8:00 am, 2/10. Snowing and blowing pretty hard, limited visibility. We're expecting maybe another 15 inches by 7:00 pm. Notice that the street which was clear last night has already been covered.
8:00 am, 2/10. The neighbors cleared their car yesterday afternoon. It's already covered in snow again.
10:00 am, 2/10. Blowing pretty hard.
2/10, 10am
2/10, noon
2/10, noon
2/10, 4pm. Sunny now, but still blowing really har. All the hard edges in the snow have been softened
2/10, 4pm
2/10, 5:30pm
2/10, 5:30pm
2/11, 9:30am. Finishing the cleanup. Bright sunshine, more snow than any of us want to see. Still fairly windy.
2/11, 9:30am
2/11, 9:30am

14 Lessons in Leadership & Marketing

10. Invest in Social Media

During his remarks, Alan declared, “Social media is the future.” (Some of us might add, “Social media is also the ‘now.’”) Expressing his sensitivity to the power of social media, he joked that he would be taking care in his remarks as he was aware that many in attendance would be twittering during his talk. 

Ford’s prowess and investment in social media is legendary. Each automobile model get’s its own Twitter page. Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and blogs are all part of the Ford sales and customer service workforce.
via glengilmoreblog.blogspot.com

Lesson Number 10 is important to me, but the other lessons here are no less compelling. The message here is reinforced by Ford's recent economic success (and highlighted by Toyota's self-destructive behavior).

5 Questions with Seth Godin : Marketing :: American Express OPEN Forum

1) John: How do you come up with big ideas on a seemingly daily basis?

Seth:  Well, I guess I would respond by asking people how can they not generate that on a daily basis? If you talk to a plumber, as Harlan Ellison is famous for saying, you go, "Wow, that's amazing. You unclogged 6,000 toilets in your career." And what we do for a living now, is we think. What we do for a living now is we manipulate ideas and we make change happen.

If you knew that people, even five people, were waiting every single day to read what you were going to write on a blog, your brain would rise to the occasion. It would notice things. It would find things to talk about. There are very few people on this planet who go out to lunch with a friend and have absolutely nothing to say.

There are very few people who are unable to speak when spoken to. Well, if you're good at speaking to one individual, then you should be good at writing.

via openforum.com

Lead question in an interview with Seth Godin. I've been impressed mostly by the how much idea generation he does but also by how good and how provoking many of those ideas are. Later in the interview he talks a little bit about his idea generation process.