The fractional ownership that has been advanced by blockchain technology is an exciting future — even if its popularity borders on the inane. Comparisons to early commercial applications of the internet seem apt. It’s difficult to decipher what will last and what will fade.
Continue reading Yeah, I chipped into a decentralized effort to buy a copy of the U.S. ConstitutionMonth: November 2021
How to make a great checklist
No matter how expert you are, a simple, carefully-constructed list will improve the quality of your output.
That’s the central point that author Atul Gawande made back in 2009 in his popular business book The Checklist Manifesto, which followed an article he wrote for the New Yorker. It’s a short book that others have recommended to me before, so I finally grabbed a copy and breezed through it. His central point is clear enough that it likely could have remained a longform article, but the book is easy enough a read that’s worth the time. If you haven’t already give it a try.
Below find my notes from the book, including tips for making a better checklist yourself.
Continue reading How to make a great checklistSpaces between words weren’t common until the 7th century
From the Economist:
A book seems such a simple structure that it feels less invented than self-evident, the innovations behind it hard to see. Yet every chapter in its progress was slow, bound on either side by centuries of sluggishness. Turnable pages didn’t really arrive until the first century bc; the book form didn’t take off properly until the fourth century ad. The separating of words with spaces didn’t get going until the seventh—verylateforsomethingsouseful. Finally things accelerated: first came the index, in the 13th century, then Gutenberg, then, in 1470, the first printed page number. You can still see it in a book in the Bodleian Library.
Works Rules! Google research and data on running more effective companies from the 2015 book
Given its large scale, data-driven culture and willingness to experiment, Google has produced a considerable amount of intelligence on operating effective organizations.
Much of it was shared in the 2015 bestselling book Work Rules! by Google’s former chief people officer Laszlo Bock. It’s long been on my list, and earlier this year I finally finished it up.
I recommend you get yourself a copy of the book. Below for my own future reference, I share notes from my reading.
Continue reading Works Rules! Google research and data on running more effective companies from the 2015 book