tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41185619530417661192024-03-15T21:10:12.474-04:00Through The BrowserBecause The Best Information Comes "Through The Browser"Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.comBlogger194125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-67782043794534371582014-07-22T14:45:00.000-04:002014-07-22T14:48:48.165-04:00Communication For MakersAn address to the incoming class of the The Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program at the United States Naval Research Laboratory emphasizing the importance of developing good communication skills for technical professionals.
Making, building, discovering are the good parts. And getting sponsorship for making, building, discovering requires communication. Communication is a Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-83648139311608574702014-05-14T17:41:00.000-04:002015-05-15T19:26:49.242-04:00Human AccomplishmentWho were the most important inventors and artists from 850 BC to 1950?
How many are there?
How would you choose?
What could you learn from a list of these achievers and what they accomplished?
Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C to 1950 by Charles Murray, answers these questions and a lot more.
Murray researches as many lists of achievement as heThoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-57495905378680968892014-04-07T12:07:00.001-04:002014-04-07T12:15:37.431-04:00GlogsterThe Paint Branch High School is special. Years ago they decided that their annual science fair shouldn't just be a checkoff on a list and started redesigning their event.
They looked at why no one came and decided to move it from the middle of the day to the evening to make it easier for parents, friends, and the community to join their celebration.
If you're going to have an audience, how Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-37642956663089941002014-01-07T12:30:00.001-05:002018-05-28T14:52:15.181-04:00Focus
I’m a sucker for what pmarca
calls productivity
pr0n. From early pioneers like Seneca,
Franklin, and Carnegie,
to today’s wonder-of-the-minute, I'm always looking for a better way.
Sometimes it's like that six year old with the
hammer, who saw everything as a nail.
Daniel
Goleman’s Focus
– The Hidden Driver of Excellence is a marvelous book. He
starts with a premise – that the Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-4419622316718578022013-10-29T18:02:00.001-04:002013-10-29T18:08:39.803-04:00Cool Tools
Here’s an example of
using appropriate (not new) technology in new ways.
Kevin Kelley has self
published Cool
Tools: A
Catalog of Possibilities, a book based on
a ten year blog, and tells his
story of publishing
it.
If you would like to
preview what is in the book, check out the Cool
Tools blog.
I’m a tool junkie,
started as a union carpenter, and still go to look at hammers when Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-14019076635261064802013-09-11T09:44:00.001-04:002013-09-11T17:04:24.667-04:00Age Is Just A Number
When is the right time to make a
scientific discovery?
Maybe after your education is out of
the way? Whew, now I don’t have to learn any more!
It turns out that education isn’t so
much about learning facts as about learning how to add to and make
use of your knowledge. Education becomes a lifetime practice.
While still in his teens, Benoit
Mandelbrot saw science as a game where Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-45478936988106192102013-08-05T10:01:00.000-04:002013-08-06T08:47:31.827-04:00The Lost Blogging Manual
Scott Rosenberg’s Say
Everything How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, And
Why It Matters is a homecoming book for me.
In a history of blogging, he explains
why blog time is faster than print time, has great quotes from my
forty favorite bloggers, friends, and heroes, and provides a context
for some of the knotty questions I’ve read or thought about.
On journalists versus Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-84436887652911897752013-07-21T20:13:00.000-04:002013-07-21T20:16:05.278-04:00Change Of Command
A friend I started serving
on a Board with 30 years ago, has been recruited (at 80!) and is
relocating. I heard the story and said, “Somebody should throw him
a party!”
Not being a party thrower,
I asked our executive officer, an
eager, hispanic Radar
O’Reilly, “How much do I front you to get this done?”
The next day the XO called
and said a lot of people from the organization wanted Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-4938024299936974192013-06-11T13:20:00.002-04:002013-06-11T13:38:03.672-04:00The Kepler Moment
Reading The
Fractalist, Memoir of a Scientific Maverick, Benoit
Mandelbrot’s autobiography, he was continually looking for the
possibility of a Kepler Moment. If I had a science teacher who
understood and communicated the concept, I probably would have ended
up as more of a researcher.
Mandelbrot’s
lifetime search for the Kepler Moment is the game of creative
science.
When CopernicusThoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-77080625327358268102013-05-09T11:43:00.001-04:002013-05-09T12:05:06.806-04:00Letters To A Young Scientist
Have you ever been called
to give advice to someone just starting their career?
Heck, have you ever
considered giving yourself a career checkup?
Letters
To A Young Scientist by Pulitzer Prize
winning author Edward
O. Wilson is a delight. Twenty one “letters” (actually each
is more focused than a letter, how about a great blog post?) shows
how the author got into the science business,Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-6628236564695860912013-04-24T16:05:00.002-04:002013-04-24T16:32:15.966-04:002013 Junior Academy Innovation Leadership Awards
Every Science Fair is different.
Long
term change is difficult, requiring focus, sustained effort, and
hopefully building on previous years’ achievements.
The annual Paint Branch High School
Science Expo changed half a decade ago. Their problem was, nobody
cared. The major reason for their annual science fair was to check
off the activity.
The faculty, administration, and
Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-12993781972117121362013-03-18T14:27:00.004-04:002013-03-18T14:41:38.887-04:00St. Bumpersticker’s Spring Epistle
Not Drunk...
Dodging Potholes!
The
Sales Lab Model – So THAT’S the answer!
Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-37062820538053504722013-03-07T15:27:00.000-05:002013-03-08T16:56:52.997-05:00Great Science Fairs
Dannielle
commented, Curious what do you think makes for a great science
fair? Top 5-10 elements.
Really good question. The
Junior Academy
of the Washington Academy of
Sciences provides
judges for many school science fairs every year. I started as a judge
in the program and succeeded the founder several years ago. I am pro
science fair.
...so thank you fer askin!’
The science fair Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-37243209534842866472013-02-23T16:12:00.000-05:002013-03-20T11:06:40.584-04:00Practical Science
It’s Science Fair season and judges
from the Junior
Academy of the Washington
Academy of Sciences were evaluating projects at Washington
Mathematics Science and Technology Public Charter High School.
What has changed in 2013?
The
baseline projects are getting better. There are books and websites
for improving science projects and the students are using them. That
created a similarity of Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-84043579663896881212013-02-11T19:38:00.000-05:002013-02-11T19:38:28.326-05:00A Label Is Not A Solution
I hate when a CEO asks for an opinion
of one of her people.
First of all nobody asks for my opinion
of a happy situation. When it’s happy, they want to TELL me.
Not that we will disagree. How people
are perceived is pretty straight forward.
However, if we come up with a different
description of the same behavior, the chances are no action will be
taken, so the situation Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-51025846031091234022013-01-28T11:25:00.002-05:002013-01-28T16:56:48.607-05:00A Tale of Two Makers
Ed is the flat out best
manager I know. He’s low key and fast fixing.
Last week he called for a
lunch where he told me he has to start something new. What was I
recommending?
I went over the half dozen
businesses he’s been successful in, and he had compelling reasons
why each wasn’t working today.
He said, “I need a new
model.”
That shook me. Ed and I
have created over $10 Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-11948567595614187242013-01-14T15:25:00.002-05:002013-01-14T15:25:18.839-05:00Like An Open Source Community
Neal was telling me about his most
prized Christmas present. His kids had given him a book of the best
scientific essays of the past year. Short, a couple of pages per
thought, he was enthralled.
He was relishing the wonder of several
pounds of other species that live on and in our bodies, how, in
pursuing their destinies, they provide services that enable each of
us to function.
Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-61683703356493858522012-12-26T11:24:00.003-05:002013-08-02T14:34:27.818-04:00Joy’s Law
(Bill)
Joy’s
Law,
“No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for
someone else.”
What
if overcoming Joy’s Law is
the new baseline for succeeding?
Chris
Anderson’s Makers
showcases
how Joy’s Law has already changed the front end of our economy.
If
you’ve convinced yourself you’re not affected, God bless. My
experience is that every time I have been unusually Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-45107572728182785212012-12-17T08:49:00.003-05:002012-12-18T14:48:07.224-05:00Design For Your Real World
Let’s suppose you went to
DickDavies.com and
selected the third navigation link, Presentations.
Pretty cool, eh? Notice you went across
two websites?
Let’s try that again. Go
to Sales Lab Posts
and then switch to Through
The Browser.
It would be real easy to have a reader
go between those blogs and never notice. We use that at Sales
Lab Resources.
Members of the
Institute of Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-26337872717078763322012-11-21T08:56:00.000-05:002012-11-21T08:59:38.630-05:00Thanksgiving
I received a really nice email this
week from the president of a group I work with. She was thanking me
for working the greeting/nametag table at a their annual member
event. Appreciated my tearing myself away from the party.
Got me thinking.
I run one of their biggest activities,
with hundreds of volunteers. I tend to run it with a lead foot and a
deaf ear.
It’s a good cause, Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-80217831574155973652012-11-01T08:53:00.000-04:002012-11-01T08:53:04.612-04:00What Is School For?
Here is a remarkable 17 minute video of
Seth Godin, giving a
TEDxYouth
presentation at the Brooklyn Free School riffing about the purpose of
school.
Some of Seth’s ideas that may be
unfamiliar, but nothing doesn’t make sense, showing what happens
when someone gets beyond the excuses that pass for thinking about
education, focusing on a rigorous, energetic thought experiment.
A Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-21968246521279399472012-10-16T15:47:00.000-04:002012-10-18T08:47:05.325-04:00Wading In The Streams
Google Plus streams (Posts) were a new
technology. I’ve evolved some practices to make it easier to use
and more valuable for me.
I already follow sixty blogs on Google
Reader. I’m reading for my own development, but also forward a
fair amount, say one out of three, to friends and customers who I
know have an interest in a subject. You can see the blogs I subscribe
to on the bottom of theThoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-7135208928785945402012-09-27T20:10:00.001-04:002012-09-27T20:20:25.910-04:00Welcome to Hogwarts!
People look for what to expect before
they try something new. They want us to signal a level of excitement,
clues to what is good, something they can believe in.
When was the last time you met a car
salesman as exciting as a car commercial?
“But I was taught to listen to the
customer...” So was the door at Macy’s, but at least it opens as
I walk up to it. Show some action, some Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-76487725006312479472012-09-22T12:24:00.002-04:002012-09-22T12:33:49.029-04:00BOTR - The Other Side Of Project Management
I'm fascinated by people who can tell when others aren't doing
their part. Defining fault is to them a higher value alternative to
contributing.
I go into a project figuring I'll do it all, if it comes down to
that. Now that’s a key decision criteria!
Get more than half of the project team feeling that way and
you've got it licked. Leadership is not exhortation or blaming, but
Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118561953041766119.post-21999994009060467652012-09-11T12:28:00.000-04:002012-09-11T12:35:32.187-04:00Rules Baytus
The term for someone fascinated with
rules, not changing outcomes, obsessing over imagined possible
violations. A
spectator at life.
Their work product is a shifting,
unprioritized list of what could go wrong, real and imagined. It’s
a task that doesn’t ever need to end, a full time occupation
without effort.
I was playing in a golf tournament and
was admiring an old guy’s line of Thoughthebrowserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03168275572852278665noreply@blogger.com0