Pushing your skill set. Are you doing anything to keep up your skills? Some of you don't have a choice–especially if you're doing client work where each new job “forces” you to learn something new. But for those of us who–like me–are mostly working on our own stuff, we can get… a little lazy. The [...]

Keeping Up.  This year, I started a more structured effort to keep up on the latest user experience research and new technologies. I consider keeping up one of the most important professional development activities I engage in. I was determined this year to do a better and most consisent job of it. It's evolved into [...]

Monarchy. Joshua Micah Marshall: “It's not too soon to start calling this for what it is: the Bush administration's creeping monarchism…. The underlying idea is not so much that the president is above the law as that he is the law. He embodies it, you might say, even embodies the state itself. And thus what [...]

Why Bring Out The Iran Plan Now?. Seymour Hersh has a new article on the the plans to attack Iran. While I am not surprised by what Hersh reveals (and others echo – Wa. Post, Independent, Al Jazeera, AFP) in his article, the timing is more than interesting. The news that the outing of CIA [...]

Idea for 'Da Vinci Code' Was Not Stolen, Judge Says. A British judge ruled that Dan Brown did not steal the idea for his book, “The Da Vinci Code,” from an earlier work. By SARAH LYALL. [NYT > Home Page]

Measure THAT. One of the secrets of the Yellow Pages was that the phone company would give you a second line when you bought a big ad. Within days of the book coming out, you'd see and hear the phone ring. And you knew which phone it was. So when the time came to renew [...]

Does this company respect me? Try the sticker test.. Call off the expensive market research and fire the analysts and consultants. Here’s a great way to find out if a company that makes physical products respects their products and their customers: if there’s a sticker on the product, and it peels off cleanly (and without [...]

Lose a little at a time. Last week’s Getting Real Workshop was a blast. Especially the pushback. We had a healthy batch of skeptical folks this time which always makes for a better discussion. Besides the usual “but this won’t work in our company,” we had a good bit of people doubting if you can [...]

Bank Wire Transfers vs. FedEx Delivery. I went to the bank this morning to initiate a wire transfer for the remaining amount due on the plane (pics) and was surprised at how unpredictable the process is. My goal was to give them all the paperwork, ensure I had sufficient funds, and schedule the transfer such [...]

Foreign Experts Critique U.S. Red Cross on Katrina. The organization's response was poorly planned, relied on inexperienced managers and often failed to meet victims' needs, reports say. By STEPHANIE STROM. [NYT > Home Page]