TED Local

I'm getting excited about next week's TED conference, which I'll be watching with friends and colleagues from the low-carbon comfort of my living room. I hope for some great conversation -- the program list, if you haven't seen it, is extraordinary.

Plenty folds

Plenty magazine (both the print and web editions) joins the list of magazines that have gone under due to rapid shifts in the economy and media landscape. I applaud Plenty's good intentions, and it's sad that those involved in the venture are losing their jobs. But I also take Plenty's bow as a sign -- even a positive one -- of where we are in our national and species-level focus on the environment.

While the short-term hype around green consumerism is fading, perhaps the long-term trend towards "bright green," long-term, systemic thinking and collective behavior is just getting going.

Seventeen hearts in seventeen mouths

Mark Hurst's Good Experience blog once again lives up to its name:

"A Kindle trick that changes the reading experience"

Note to self

Take responsibility.
Honor intuitions.
Respect everyone as an equal.
Give yourself a break.
Love.
Have patience.
Take risks.
Drop your guard.
Focus on the goal.
End what doesn't work.
Preserve what does work.
Create new things.

Mastery

If I had to choose a single slide to talk about the future of education, this might be it.

Four great books

I read some good books last year, but these four were marvelous. All have expanded and clarified how I see the world and approach my work on a daily basis. Shared in the hopes that you might enjoy them as well:

Nudge, Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
The Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin