An Experiment in Emotional Intelligence

While flipping through some old notes , I was reminded of another idea that was discussed: Emotional Intelligence . Over the course of the semester, we investigated the value of Emotional Intelligence through several exercises and were challenged to try them at work and discuss the results. I do remember one "experiment" in particular. A Little Background At the time, I was working on a software application which included a moving map component. The importance of this component, led our...  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: Business, Random

Notes from Years Past

I was cleaning out some files a while ago and came across notes from a leadership class I took several years back. The notes read: * do the following once a day to reflect on the current status of a project * DO - What have you done/observed so far? STUDY/REFLECT - What did you learn from that event/observation? CONNECT/SYNTHESIZE - How does this connect with what you already know? PLAN - What will you do differently now? Common sense really. And probably the natural way most of us approach continuous...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Software, Business

WHOA! You don't talk to me directly!

A few days ago, the Daily Dilbert really resonated with me. They usually are pretty funny; and even funnier when you've directly experienced what Scott Adams is poking fun at. When I read this, I was reminded of an experience I had while working at Lockheed . Lockheed had (and probably still has) a tradition of giving employees gifts on employment anniversaries. The one year gift was a nice pen with a fancy logo on it accompanied by a congratulatory letter. Now, the thing that surprised me most...  ... Read the full post or  the 3 comments. Filed under: Business

Seth, on the ending of Sopranos and expectations

In The Expectation Paradox , Seth Godin writes: "As word of mouth becomes an ever more important component of marketing, the scales are tipping. Undersell, overdeliver. It's the strategy that works in the long run." As I think: "When was underselling and overdelivering a bad strategy? Has one of the demigod's of marketing just now enlightened us to the value of integrity?" Hey, you gotta love the first reactions of an ignorant software developer. Maybe TheBlackFin can...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Business, Random

Flashback. A round world becomes flat.

If you haven't read The World is Flat , at least watch the video of Thomas Friedman talking about his book at MIT. Although the book was originally released in April 2005 and the video is close to an hour, it is well worth your time. Especially if you appreciate the power of technology and its influence in the 21st Century.  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: Business, Random

Don't tell me what you want, show me.

In The Lessons of T Shirts to Marketers , Mark Cuban writes: The Customer is always right, but often they tell you want they want not by their responses to your inquiries but by their actions. This is quite a valid point and one applicable in more areas than marketing. If customers tell you what they want through their actions, then how much more important does that make in-person meetings?  ... Read the full post or  the 2 comments. Filed under: Business, Random

More competition for Google Analytics

First we learn that FeedBurner is extending their web site analytics capabilities and now we learn that Microsoft is creating their own version of web analytics, named Gatineau. When I first signed up for Google Analytics, I really enjoyed it. However, after using it for a while I have found it be lacking in the details. The big charts on the home page make it quite nice to get a quick overview but as you dive deeper it is difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. Obviously I'm not the...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Business, Random

Top 5 Reasons: Why I Still Read Fast Company

With the over-abundance of online media today, one would think that print media is all but extinct. Now, I am no expert on the subject, nor will I attempt to predict the future of digital or print media. What I will do is list the top five reasons why I can't let go of one form of print media, the magazine. After all, I'm simply a consumer, not a media visionary. Specifically, a magazine popular among business and entrepreneurial minded folks: Fast Company . I would guess that more than 90% of the...  ... Read the full post or  be the first to comment. Filed under: Business, Media

Syndication, Comments, and TrackBacks (2)

Comments seem to be one of the primary ways that a community forms. A bunch of people read a piece of content, a few comment, then a few more respond to the comments... and voila , an interesting discussion is born. Why then would one choose to not allow comments to their content? A few observations about the commenting options that a few bloggers have chosen: this, as a follow up to some notes about syndication options . No Comments The question: Allow user comments to my blog posts or not? The...  ... Read the full post or  the 3 comments. Filed under: Community Server, Software, Business

Syndication, Comments, and TrackBacks

Recently, I've been quite intrigued by the many combinations of syndication, comment, and trackback options that bloggers use. As I surfed blogdom over the weekend, I began to keep track of how bloggers handle these three issues. Here is a summary of what I noted about syndication options. Syndication The question: Syndicate full posts or excerpts? Seth Godin syndicates excerpts only. I use to like this and think it was the appropriate thing for all bloggers to do. However, as I add more feeds...  ... Read the full post or  the first comment. Filed under: Software, Business