March 2012
23 posts
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Steven Pressfield: Betting On Yourself →
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What's More Expensive Than College? Not Going to... →
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Sarah K. Peck, on writing
This is from an older posting for Sarah, and so her specific call to action there is over, but I liked these two paragraphs and wanted to share them here:
Writing, to me, counteracts the busy-ness and near insanity of the media blitz world we live in of hyperconnectivity. With media, consumption and networking, I dip into it, I grow my addictions, and I blissfully engage in the beauty of...
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Goodreads Review: Self-Reliance by The Domino... →
Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson My rating: 2 of 5 stars While I appreciate their effort to bring Emerson’s essay to more readers, I’m not a fan of this particular edition done by The Domino Project. There’s some irony here: The Domino Project has desensitized our ability to read this with self-reliant comprehension. [Note: Selected this edition based on ISBN, and the cover is incorrect,...
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Back to the Basics on Managing with Aloha →
managingwithaloha:
I recently sat with a college counselor who wanted “the 411″ on Managing with Aloha from my perspective as the book’s author. She’s new in her role with a local college which has used my book in their MBA program for several years now, and she called me for an interview when she began to read it. Our conversation was wonderful in taking me back to the basics, so much so that I...
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Writing Matters →
Joe Konrath:
I love writing. I loved it for the 12 years where I didn’t sell a single thing, and I’ve loved it for the 12 years I’ve been a professional. I have all the conceits that every writer has. I think about my characters as if they’re real people. I dream about scenes. I secretly believe my stories are the best in the world. I laugh at my own jokes, cry at the...
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Frank Chimero on being ‘indie’ →
It’s funny how words can get to mean their opposite. I can say that after a year of working on an independent book (in the truest sense of the word—independent of a publisher), I have a clear idea of what makes something “indie.” It is a devotion to one’s perspective, and a willingness to do the hard work necessary to see the work through on one’s own terms. It takes belligerence to not...
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Goodreads Review: An Everlasting Meal →
An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler My rating: 5 of 5 stars There’s a small club of books which, after I’ve read them, obliterate my need for any gift list the coming Christmas: I’ll simply buy the book by the case, and give it to everyone I care about. In this small club are First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, The...
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Pass the Books. Hold the Oil. - Thomas Friedman,... →
What we in Hawaii can learn from another island community:
EVERY so often someone asks me: “What’s your favorite country, other than your own?”
I’ve always had the same answer: Taiwan. “Taiwan? Why Taiwan?” people ask.
Very simple: Because Taiwan is a barren rock in a typhoon-laden sea with no natural resources to live off of — it even has to import sand and gravel from China for construction —...
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Book Review: How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer →
How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer My rating: 4 of 5 stars Lehrer’s book is useful, and so I greatly appreciate that he has written it; to me, useful is what all non-fiction should be. One of my favorite passages in the book was this one: [blogged a story related to it on Talking Story: We see what we want to see.]
“For too long, people have disparaged the emotional brain, blaming our feelings for...
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Unconditional Acceptance, Nature and Nurture →
Talking Story Archive Aloha, its re-reading triggered by my daughter’s birthday today; Hau‘oli lā hānau – Happy Birthday Ash!
Snippet:
Aloha accepts all people unconditionally as our fellow human beings, worthy of the Aloha we then give, within the values-held belief that all people are good, and thus worthy of our love. And remember: If you are to receive that beautifully authentic Aloha...
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Culture-Building: First, understand what... →
When are you expected to work with your manager?
Where does individual ownership give way to partnership, and to the team dynamic?
Over and above the day-to-day focus within the work which is done, what are the visionary, mission-driven possibilities elevated in the near future?
How do mavericks grow in your company? How do your best ideas gain support, and then attain traction and velocity...
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Neil Gaiman's Journal: Some thoughts on writing,... →
It’s a weird thing, writing. Sometimes you can look out across what you’re writing, and it’s like looking out over a landscape on a glorious, clear summer’s day. You can see every leaf on every tree, and hear the birdsong, and you know where you’ll be going on your walk. And that’s wonderful. Sometimes it’s like driving through fog. You can’t...
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DailyGood: The Power of Metaphors, by Michael... →
Excerpt, with an Einstein quote I have always liked:
The connection between perspective and creative thinking has to do with habituation and over-familiarization. Over-familiarization with something ( an idea, a procedure, a system ) is a trap. Where creative thinking is concerned, that is the irony of the skill: the more adept you are at something, the less likely you are to look at it in a...
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Smashwords Sale: It’s Read an Ebook Week →
Aloha fellow readers!
I will be participating in Read an Ebook Week over at Smashwords starting today, March 4th, through to Saturday, March 10th, with 3 ebooks there for you to choose from:
Become an Alaka‘i Manager in 5 weeks: This one is free. It was written as a how-to guide for Managing with Aloha
Business Thinking with Aloha: Normally $7.99, this week only $2.00.
Value your Month to...
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DailyGood: Competing with Love, by Somik Raha →
There is a lot of wisdom in this article: Find some quiet time to sit with it this weekend. It makes me think of Aloha, of ‘Ike loa (the value of learning) and of Kūlia i ka nu‘u (the value of achievement), wherein we address competition within Managing with Aloha:
Competition is not a goal.
Kūlia i ka nu‘u is a reminder that competition serves no purpose if its only objective is to leave...
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I am reading: How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer →
As of this writing, it’s only $2.99 on Kindle, and your experiences are like the blade of a comprehension slicing pair of scissors (more on that within the blog post this points to).
I decided to post this earlier than I usually do (as full book review), just in case you want to read along with me: The price is certainly right! (You don’t need the Kindle device itself; you can download it from...
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Going Beyond Profit, by Somik Raha | Daily Good →
Love these two stories: Values-based management (and leadership) is simply working with the integrity of what you believe in as being good. We need more of this to happen:
The beyond-profit perspective is familiar for those who concern themselves with value-creation.
In a strategy consulting exercise with a product manager at a reputed web services company, I was pleasantly surprised to find...
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Less Work, More Living, by Juliet Schor for The... →
Adding this article to the resource listing I had included within my own flag-waving about this subject: On the 20-hour work week: All in favor? Do you recall reading it?
It’s an inventive call to action:
Let’s shift what we value in society today, by shifting to the 20-hour work week.
The argument behind this proposal, is that our 40-hour work week has been our convention, but convention...
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Rands In Repose: A Precious Hour →
Other than spending time with my family, my absolute favorite time of the week is Saturday morning. I sleep in a little bit, walk upstairs, start the coffee process, and wander over to the computer. There’s a Dropbox folder titled “Latest Rands Articles” and right this moment there are 65 articles in progress there. After a brief stumble of the Internet, a precious time begins. I have...
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Lists of Note: 10 Rules for Wives →
On values and behavior, circa 1923: Imagine the indignation if a paper tried to print this today! If we can curb our ‘modern’ impulses with a dose of healthy humility, this is good advice worth accepting… I’d guess the men in our lives would likely agree.
10 Rules for Wives
In 1923, the Legal Aid Society of New York City published some advice to wives in the area, in the form of...
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Learning and Weaving: The absorption benefit of... →
Absorption
You see, hear, and read a lot each day.
You discover goodness, and learn all sorts of things.
And if that’s not enough, you share in what I find and clip here on Ho‘ohana Aloha.
How do you apply what’s most useful to you and retain it?
I’ll ask the question in another way: What is the Personal Philosophy you weave it into?
