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(or, more accurately, 6 bookcases…)
I’m going to be moving soon, and I’m not looking forward to trying to move all my books. So, as part of a general clean-out, I’ve decided to give lots of my books away on BookMooch.
For those who don’t know it, the site operates on a really simple premise: you give [...]

Joel has posted the initial draft of his Management Training Reading List, with 75 “must read” books on general business, software management, and corporate biography.
I think I’ve read 42 of the 75, and some of the others certainly look like I should read them. But I’m not going to aim for the 75 - I [...]

I’ve been asked which plugin I’m using to generate my “reading list” over on the sidebar. Like any true geek, of course, I actually wrote my own. Of course I’m generally into reuse where possible, but I wanted to learn how to write MT plugins, and it seemed like a good place to start. It [...]

Thomas Watson Sr. was one of the extraordinary people in business history. The company he created - IBM - is testimony to his exceptional capabilities as an entrepreneur, visionary, and manager.
Interestingly, when people think of the creation of IBM, and the global behemoth it became, their thoughts turn first to the company’s technological prowess. Although [...]

There are seven key reasons marketing sucks at far too many companies:

They don’t really know what marketing is, but in Kafkaesque fashion, they are going to spend money on it
They go by generalities, even though every situation is different
They do not employ a swarming offense, hitting everyone everywhere they turn
They launch expensive programs and campaigns [...]

What does a programmer do besides talk in programming language? Most programmers would have trouble explaining what they do. Programming is a job filled with details, and keeping track of those details requires focus. Hours drift by and the code appears. You look up and there are all of those statements. If you don’t think [...]

I used to think it was because I’m in a classic low-tech industry, but I spend a lot more time sorting out internal problems than I do coming up with ways to incorporate the latest wrinkle in envelope folding. Most managers do not manage change. Change takes them by surprise. What we’re actually managing is [...]

Just show up - you’re a winner 80 percent of the time. Most accounts are won because nobody else is calling on them.
Show up on time - what could be more annoying than a salesperson who can’t deliver the first thing he’s promised to delivery - his own body.
Show up on time with a [...]

Marilyn Bend, a schoolteacher in Oregon, totalled her car, and barely escaped alive. She wasn’t about to buy the same model, so she went to another dealer. He didn’t have what she wanted in stock, and he wouldn’t order it without her making “a commitment” in advance to buy it. She finally ended up back [...]

I am standing in the front yard of my close friend Loren Lewis when a blue Cadillac pulls into his driveway. Loren is known as a mechanical genius who has a weird, psychic bond with Cadillacs. Loren shouts to the driver, “Pop the hood and leave it running!” and then begins messing with things in [...]

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