A story for leaders and their mentors

Doing some clean-up about the house today, I came across the Alan Price book Ready to Lead? (2004), which is worth a little plug. This is thoughtful essay on leadership, and the differences between leadership and management. The essay is written in the form of a novel, which works much better than one might expect. I'd recommend it to anyone, particularly MBA students or executives making a big career transition.

Business writing with a kick

Early on Christmas morning, I finished reading The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Indusry from Crop to the Last Drop from New Press. The two authors—Nina Luttinger and Gregory Dicum, fellow San Franciscans—are superb storytellers. Every chapter is a joy to read, with insightful and lucid descriptions of the history of third places, the effects of globalization on the developing world, and the promise and potential snarls of the sustainable food movement.

Reducing PC power consumption

LocalCooling is a software program designed to reduce your PC's power consumption and, thereby, its CO2 footprint. Not yet available for Mac.

Global Kids virtual summer camp

One of my favorite Second Life projects from 2006: the Global Kids virtual summer camp.

The Evening Call

My brother hit a home run by buying me the latest Greg Brown CD for Christmas. I have a thing for soulful baritones, and The Evening Call is one of the best from Brown's thirty year career.

The album has many virtues, but what I like most are Greg's beautiful, broken voice, and flashes of wisdom and joy found deep in the muck of life.

The trend trend

A great NYT article by Rob Walker on TrendWatching, and the explosion of organizations involved in finding and naming trends.

Second Life carbon footprint

Rough Type has run the numbers to figure out the total energy consumption of Second Life.

Read the comments, too—they include some solid critiques of his math and assumptions, as well as attempts to broaden the conversation to look at PC usage and First World energy consumption generally. A good start to the conversation.

Let me get what I want this time

There's a hilarious and touching exhibit at the SFMOMA called "the world won't listen." Phil Collins (not that one) went to Istanbul in 2005 to film young people bearing their souls doing karaoke versions of Smiths songs. And all we got was this wonderful 1-hour video.