In “FREE: The Economics of Abundance and the Price of Zero,” Wired magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson talks about the gift economy and how you can make products free without losing your financial return. One idea that caught my attention was to give your products away for bloggers to review. With one of his previous books (The Long Tail, I believe), Chris says he sent out … more »

Lately I’ve been reading Scott Berkun’s The Myths of Innovation. A passage about the methods for innovation jumped out at me. Berkun writes, Many innovations start in the same way as mentioned previously [from dedicated problem solvers], but an unexpected opportunity emerges and is pursued midway through the work (p. 41). In other words, while people are pursuing one direction, they encounter a surprise that … more »

After reading Scott Berkun’s essay on the how to be a genius, I listened to some of his podcasts too. One myth is that geniuses get their ideas almost out of the sky — Newton is watching an apple fall from the tree when he suddenly discovers gravity. Archimedes is taking a bath when he realizes the physics of buoyancy. Here’s an excerpt of this … more »

Reading this post by Scott Berkun made me want to be a workaholic. Here’s an excerpt: Show me a genius and I’ll show you a workaholic. Van Gogh produced 2000 works of art between 1880 and 1890 (1100 paintings and 900 sketches). That’s 4 works of art a week for a decade, and he didn’t start making art until his mid twenties. DaVinci’s famous journals … more »