Eureka!

By Marlene Wagman-Gelle

A fun read but not meaty. The author tells the story of dozens of eureka moments that lead to various creations-- Readers Digest, Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr Seuss, the Slinkey... the list goes on. At some point I stopped reading and started skimming. That turned the book into a list of triva... Inventor-Name-Here had an idea which became Company-Name-Here. Here is some trivia about his life.

What got you here won't get you there...

By Marshall Goldsmith

Its been about a month since I read "What got you here won't get you there..." I remember seven things about this book. They seem to be important things, so I'm going to write them down.

1. Watch out for the subtle ways we say "I'm better than you." or "I'm right, you're wrong" Perhaps we don't admit our mistakes, don't take responsibility for problems, forget to give proper credit, don't listen, are too negative or are too quick to dismiss other people and their ideas. The subtext of all of this is "I know better than you."

2. Listen. Don't respond with "No" or "But" or "However" or something else that subtly says "You are wrong. I know better than you."

3. Think carefully about what you say and do. If your words and actions aren't helpful, then are they necessary?

4. Say "Thank you" more often. When someone gives you negative feedback, don't argue with them or try to justify yourself. Just say "Thank you."

5. Apologize for your mistakes. Don't make long drawn out apologies-- they end up turning into excuses. Just say "I'm sorry."

6. Solicit feed back more often. Don't ask "What did we do wrong? What could we have done better?" as that just solicits a rehash of the past, and you can't change the past. Instead ask "What can we do better in the future?"

7. You can't change the past. There is very little reason to keep rehashing it.

nook.

I got myself a nook.

I've been thinking about e-Readers for over a year now. More and more, the books I read are available in on-line form, sometimes for free. I'll download these, print them at work then read them in bed.

The e-Reader market seems to be very full with dozens of offerings. The Kindle, nook (I hate it when product's don't use proper capitalization) and Sony e-Reader being leaders. Until recently even the small eReaders have been $200.00 or more. For some reason, in the past month prices for the popular readers have dropped to $150.00. Blame it on the iPad, or the Kobo.

I seriously evaluated the Sony e-Reader, the Kindle and the Nook.

The Kindle doesn't work with eBooks from my local or work library. That's where I get most of my eBooks, so the Kindle was out.

Initially I was worried about the nook. Older reviews weren't exactly glowing. Also, it's from a bricks and mortar book store. Old style companies rarely produce great new-market technologies. If Barnes and Noble decided that hi-tech electronics and web services were not their forte then the nook would be abandoned.

Sony and Amazon have a great history of inventing new markets. Barnes and Noble does not.

But, when you compare the nook to the Sony, the nook wins. Esthetically, the nook has a clean minimalist design. The 6'' nook is $30.00 less than the 6'' Sony. The Sony's display has more glare, a problem for a reading device. The nook has wi-fi. Sony's does not. The nook's online abilities appear to be better thought out than the Sony's-- I can download books, even free books, without plugging the device in. That is a very nice.

Now, the nook does have it's problems. Navigation can be clunky-- it took me half a day to learn how to do the 'swipe' gesture. Regular RSS Blogs cannot be synchronized to the nook, not a fatal flaw, but it would be nice.

So, overall I'm very happy with it. We'll see if this device sticks or as Tyco said, if it shifts from gadget to device