Archive for January, 2009
Today’s moment of musical freakishness: Jason Carter and P.O.M. covering the Chick Corea/Bela Fleck tune Children’s Song # 6. You can snag the original piano/banjo version on Amazon.
No matter how famous you get, how many Grammys you win or celebrities you date or millions you bank, the great cultural equalizer will always be trying to troubleshoot your parent’s computer issues over the phone.
It’s tough to sound unique or non-repetitive in this genre (if you can call percussive acoustic guitar a genre), but this Stefano Barone tune caught my ear. There’s something about mildly Gypsy sounding music (from an Italian no less) that’s melodically interesting to me.
File under: Sentences I Never Expected to Read – “Lewton, his daughter, and five other plaintiffs who were recorded by the bear are requesting a jury trial.”
1. Jazz Impressions Of New York – The Dave Brubeck Quartet
2. Hold Time – M. Ward
3. Swordfish Trombones – Tom Waits
4. The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion – The Black Crowes
5. Noble Beast – Andrew Bird
When was the last time you had a major work-related disagreement with someone on your team or someone you work with? If you had to think about it, it was too long ago.
Lack of conflict is present on teams where 1) someone isn’t speaking up, 2) the culture/structure doesn’t permit dissension or dialogue, or 3) everyone is in near persistent agreement. All three of these are detrimental to innovation on their own, and absolutely deadly in combination.
Get irreverent, get open, and get diverse.
Or get used to never accomplishing anything extraordinary.
You cannot get a technologically innovative place…unless it’s open to weirdness, eccentricity and difference.
— Richard Florida
Some CSS I just wrote
border: 1px solid gold;
— Justin Ouellette
It’s true, Paul’s Boutique is turning 20! So Beastie Boys remastered the sucker.
Development can help great people be even better—but if I had a dollar to spend, I’d spend 70 cents getting the right person in the door.
— Paul Russell, Director of Leadership & Development at Google
I’m using stats-tracking web app Daytum to track all the meals I buy in 2009. It’s only January 7th and it’s already somewhat depressing.
Processes are important, but processes without spirit are fundamentally useless.
— Tom Peters
It’s easy to forget that the most beautifully designed systems are still generally executed by people. And if your people don’t believe/love/become-impassioned-by what they’re doing, you should just go ahead and call it a day. Lack of passion loses.
Never one to rest on his unfortunately shutdown accomplishments, Justin Ouellette has released a super-simple, distraction-free Flickr viewer called I Hardly Knew Her. Just put your Flickr ID after the ending slash e.g. ihardlyknowher.com/hrtwrk. (Semi-related: nothing on the internet pains me more than not having a ../blankenship Flickr account.)
I’m loving this clever take on the typical family photo album from photographer Jon Uriarte.
Thelonious says, “It must always be night, otherwise they wouldn’t need the lights.” and “Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music just imagined. What you don’t play can be more important than what you do play.”
Of course he’s talking about music here, but he’s also talking about taste. And good advice about having good taste is relevant to just about anything we do.
