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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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The Art of The Quick Study
Copy This! The Story of Kinko's
Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society
Byzantine Generals - How Many Liars Can You Tolerate
Copy This! The Story of Kinko's
Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society
Byzantine Generals - How Many Liars Can You Tolerate
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Monday, October 17, 2005
The Art of The Quick Study
Some good suggestions on finding the structure and meaning of complex subjects – be they new markets, new philosophies, or new strategies. The idea of learning the language – a concept called coming to terms in the classic reading text How To Read A Book – is central to learning any new subject. Having a framework and good tools for doing so gives you consistency and reduces errors. [via Jim McGee]Becoming a better quick study of new markets and technology
Tim Oren offers his process for coming up to speed on a new market or technology. Although it's oriented towards his specific needs as a VC evaluating potential investments, it is general enough to offer an excellent starting point for any of us whose lives are characterized by having to make sense out of new environments on a regular basis. Certainly, there have been times in my career as a consultant when it seems that the primary skill requirement is to be an adept quick study on anything.
Here's Tim's key graf:There are two observations behind this methodology. First, every technology and market has a private language. It's built of terms of art, but also names of landmarks such as products, famous papers and projects, labs, and researchers and other experts. To begin to understand the market you need to learn this language. Fortunately, such a distinctive use of language and interlinkage of people and information artifacts is the very best thing you can have to feed Google or other modern search tools. The second observation is that the best way to learn a field is to watch experts argue about it. [Due Diligence]I would add two suggestions to his approach. First, give some thought to using a mindmap or something similar to manage your growing knowledge base. I'm a fan of MindManager for this kind of effort, and the newest version adds a number of new features to support this kind of organic research strategy. Jerry Michalski is a fan of a product called Personal Brain. I used it a few years back and, while I liked it, ultimaely concluded that mindmaps suited me better. Second, give some thought to how you want to manage the collection of electronic resources (links, captured webpages, pdf files, etc) you will ultimately collect. Lately, I've been having success with a combination of MindManager and Onfolio.
Posted by: 
Terry Frazier at 7:16 PM
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Categories: Business & Finance, Productivity, Strategy
Terry Frazier at 7:16 PM
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Sunday, October 16, 2005
Copy This! The Story of Kinko's
Kinko's founder Paul Orfalea offers a practical, pragmatic, and entertaining view of starting, growing, and running a multi-billion dollar business from the perspective of a guy who had to rely on his people skills and ability to listen in order to learn.
[More...]
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 8:29 PM
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Categories: Book: reviews, Business & Finance, Copyright, Publishing, Strategy
Terry Frazier at 8:29 PM
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Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society
In short: A self-absorbed and rather shallow attempt to claim the invention of a new metaphysics around a repackaging of Buddhism, New Age emotionalism, and a variety of radical change philosophies from the 1970s onward. [More...]
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 12:00 AM
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Categories: Book: reviews, Business & Finance, Globalization, Strategy
Terry Frazier at 12:00 AM
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Friday, October 14, 2005
Byzantine Generals - How Many Liars Can You Tolerate
I came across this paper at the National Institute of Standards and Technology while following links looking for something else. I wonder if anyone is working on a way to apply this to politics?Byzantine generals
(classic problem)
Definition:The problem of reaching a consensus among distributed units if some of them give misleading answers. To be memorable, the problem is couched in terms of generals deciding on a common plan of attack. Some traitorous generals may lie about whether they will support a particular plan and what other generals told them. Exchanging only messages, what decision making algorithm should the generals use to reach a consensus? What percentage of liars can the algorithm tolerate and still correctly determine a consensus?
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 10:38 AM
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Categories: Policy & Regulation, Strategy, Technology
Terry Frazier at 10:38 AM
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