I recently spoke at Yahoo! about the book, and, for this presentation, I adapted the Agenda Detection and Meeting Creatures chapters into a piece about how I assess agendas and people in the first 10 minutes of any meeting. Early on in the presentation, I asked the audience, “What are the things you are supposed… more
Coffee approach pattern Delta was in play today. This unlisted approach pattern is a stop in Los Gatos to hit one of two decent coffee shops, The Great Bear or the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting company. Neither shop can compete with Peet, but Los Gatos has other attractions. Namely, the soon-to-be-completed Apple Store: Store errata:… more
Mornings are a delicate proposition, but there are two events which, if they occur, guarantee a positive experience. The first event is coffee acquisition. Currently, there are three different coffee approaches, each has its own consequences. They are: Crappy mountain swill. This is coffee from the local store. They try, but it’s a serious B.… more
As with all new ventures in my life, I viewed publishing my first book with a constant internal pessimism. This meant that for 10 months, I was fully expecting something to occur which would derail the process and kill the book. 10 months. Constant. Now, I’m an optimistic guy. Try it. Walk into my office… more
In the past two weeks, I’ve seen a second flood of friend requests on Twitter. Included in this second wave were several Twitter haters who apparently believe that they’ve made their point and now it’s ok to join Twitter. Welcome. I wasn’t the first person to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. In fact, my original… more
Acquiring video games prior to console domination and the modern Internet era went like this: I walked into Electonics Boutique or Egghead Software, went to the PC section, and began to physically pick up the games. I held them in my hand and I was looking for two things: did it have the right weight… more
Update: There’s a new edition of Managing Humans. Woke up writing this morning, which is a big deal because I’ve hated writing for two months. See, Rands and I wrote a book. And yes, I said Rands and I because after 30+ chapters of writing, rewriting, and editing, it’s absolutely clear to me what part… more
The $150,000 mistake, your shipping schedule being off by a year, and The Really Bad Hire (aka: we’re being sued). These are not screw-ups, these are fuck-ups. When you discover them, the air leaves your lungs, the back of your head tingles, and there’s an odd metallic taste in your mouth. Your mind goes blank… more
It’s WWDC season and that means Keynote. Lots of it. Today is Sunday and I’ve clocked 6 hours of Keynote and I’m ok with that. Keynote doesn’t get in my way and Keynote doesn’t piss me off, so I’m taking a break from endless slides to give Keynote some credit and to give you some… more
It is both professionally and personally satisfying to randomly discover that an Apple store is being opened in your home town. This store is 2 doors down from the coffee shop where I’m written most of the significant letters in my life. It is also 25 doors down from the dive bar which serves the… more