Nick’s Book Blog

I can't believe I'm reviewing this book, but since I got the recommendation to read it in a professional context, here it goes. I actually thought the book was hilarious. I mean, I sat in a parking lot and was laughing at it. I think it was funny because you've met people like this. I mean, at least they have some things in common with the people who are described in the book. I am fairly far from being a hipster: a) too old; b) too much body fat; c) way too Mormon; d) correct use of semicolons when punctuating a list. However, I did get two out of the six questions right on "how to tell you're a hipster." I won't write anymore because you can get a much better gist by just looking at the website . Very funny.

Check out my newest posts on Lifehack.org which are on the scintillating topics of: Using a time map Exercise can make you smarter So there you have it. TTYL.

I'm just going to bundle these two in the same post since they've kind of blurred together in my mind anyway, along with Linked , that I blogged about earlier. And I know I'm late to the party with the Gladwell books, so bear with me. And if you've not had a chance to read them yet, I'd say they're definitely a good real. They are both really good, and I think if you're the kind of person who likes to observe abstract phenomena in society, you'll really dig both of them. Now, I've reduced the thesis of Blink down to a single phrase that Gladwell uses: "thin slicing." Thin slicing means that you can do a lot with a little, so to speak, informationwise. In other words, we have so much information thrown at us on a daily, hourly, minutely basis that less is more. Thru the use of loads of examples, Gladwell explains why we can size up a situation with precision accuracy when we're given just enough information; the inverse of this is that t...

Pleased to report I'm a guest blogger on Lifehack.org. Now I need to come up with something :) If you're a first-time visitor, have a look around, and welcome! Update: Check out my first post about dealing with manipulative people .

I got an email today from MailChimp, which is a web-based mass emailing app. I use their stuff and it has been a good experience so far. Today they sent a newsletter which has a study of open rates and subject lines . Highly interesting. Also from it, I discovered a new blog, bly.com , which is the blog of a professional copywriter. Good stuff. I'm going thru a marketing phase right now because I've figured that's what I need to be doing in my current position. I sent a message out to the ASAE listserv asking about how to do my marketing plan in an association environment since obviously pretty much every resource is out there to sell "stuff." So it's helpful to a point, but you always have to adapt it. A delightful woman from the American Chemical Society wrote me a couple of lengthy emails explaining her process and it seems just fantastic. So back to work for yours truly. Also, I wanted to point out today's post from 37Signals , which has loads of great...

Here's a post via a blogger I've been following a long time, Ms. Jane Galt . It talks about the importance, essentially, of saying yes instead of saying no . Of course there's the argument that saying yes is risky, but in most of the professional situations I've been exposed to (i.e. small programs, small offices, small business), the risks are hardly ever that big. But the risk inherent in pissing people off is rather large.

Things are really busy at the ranch these days, but I wanted to post related to something I saw this weekend on HGTV's Mission Organization. This is related to the article I have coming out in June's issue of Associations Now . Basically, the organizer goes to this guy's room and it's a total wreck. You can tell by looking at the room that he must not use any of the stuff because there's no way he could access all of it or retain in memory what comprised the great meteor of paperwork and schlock. Mind you, I'm not casting stones or anything, because we all do this to some degree or another unless you have OCD and then you take Zoloft until you're able to once again. Ahem, back to business. The organizer walks him thru the process of stoppping the insanity. They go thru all the crap and sort it using just four (4) categories. [ed. I like to use parenthetical numbers, it makes me feel official like I'm writing a government report]. The categories are: - I ...