A Disappearing Symbol of Virtue? Smartwatches Rain on the Fitness Tracker Parade
The new kid on the block is smartwatches. They will have everything that a fitness tracker has, and then some. But I think we are going to lose an important signal of people’s potential in so doing. You wear a fitness tracker all the time. It measures your activity including steps in walking, running, stair […]
Why the Tech Bubble? Fewer Startups, Higher Valuations of Course!
See, everyone’s talking about the emerging (or emerged) bubble in startup valuations. My thesis: there are now far fewer startups so valuations have to go up. Duh. So you thought the number of startups was rising? All those Silicon Valley startups, every university having courses in entrepreneurship? Think again. You are totally wrong. Check out this […]
When Will Cyber-Spying Become Telepathy?
Another day, another mega-hack. Sears, JP Morgan, the US Post office, etc. The only organizations that haven’t been hacked are the ones that don’t realize it has happened to them anyway. It’s clear that a new type of digital ecosystem is emerging. In this ecosystem, cyber spies are continuously monitoring what you are doing. Meanwhile […]
Fix the Deficit – Sell Alaska and Puerto Rico
Everyone is making such a big deal about the Federal deficit. I don’t know why because I think it’s such an easy problem to fix. In the old days, when the US was flush with cash, we used to buy territory, such as the Louisiana Purchase. I say we just gotta put the system into […]
Hobby Lobby, Pinterest and the Maker Movement – The New Theory of Everything?
Hobby Lobby just opened up in my town. Now the parking lot is always full. How come this stuff is so popular these days? Is it something to do with Pinterest? What has made Pinterest such a massive success anyway? People like making stuff. It’s innate to humans. Even animals like making stuff too. We […]
Gluten-Free Diets Kill! A Toxic Leadership Insight
Yep, it’s true. If you don’t believe me read the January 2015 issue of Consumer Reports here. Before we get to the killing part, Consumer Reports points out that their research shows that gluten-free foods usually have a lot more fat, sugar and calories than gluten-ful foods. And of course, they are way more expensive. But […]
Protocol versus Passion – EBOLA and the Doctors Without Borders Leadership Model
The EBOLA crisis is giving us a pointed lesson about leadership. On the one hand there’s a rules-based approach to addressing the crisis adopted by government and the US medical bureaucracy. On the other there’s the passion-based approach championed by the NGOs and particularly Doctors without Borders (donate to this great organization here). The protocol […]
What’s the Difference between Entrepreneurship and Innovation?
You can’t lift up any piece of news or commentary these days without seeing a discussion or article about entrepreneurship and innovation and how to improve one, the other or both. Prescriptions abound. But my question is: are entrepreneurship and innovation the same thing or are they different? I ask that because you usually see […]
Dust on Your Lens: Gravitational Waves and Cognitive Biases
Scientists are always looking for the next Big Thing so they all got excited several months ago about what looked like the discovery of the long-predicted gravitational waves. I got pretty excited too. I even blogged about it (“Ripples In Corporate Space-Time: Do Companies Have An Internal Clock?”). Now it looks like it was wrong. […]
Oscar de la Renta: The End of Snap, Crackle and Pop Leadership?
So Oscar de la Renta just died. A fashion icon par excellence. Can a fashionista be anything more than a dressed up peacock, no matter how wealthy? Every era has its leadership zeitgeist. Usually in the heady times, the zeitgeist favors pomp and circumstance, narcissists, unachievable visions and huge fortunes. That was the early 2000s. […]