Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

Opening up

I don’t know what to write about yet, perhaps the co-relation between blogging and ideas. I attempted a similar post last week, and restricted it mostly to differing learning styles. In short, some people (me) learn as they write, some as they hear, some as they see, some as they speak. As a human being, [...]

(Re)Positioning Yourself

Positioning is a marketing concept that is expressed through verbal, numerical, and visual cues. As such, it is easily identifiable, if you know what to look for. But the fun is less so, if you try to do it yourself. Let me give an example of what positioning is. Last night, I’m waiting for a [...]

Why blogging makes me a better worker

For the record, I include Twitter, Facebook, and certain other Internet activity into my categorization of blogging, because they all share the characteristic that I wish to write about today. It should come as no one’s surprise that I spend a fair amount online, whether it’s this bog, Twitter, or Facebook. All-together, I’d say I [...]

Blogs are to Books are what TV-Shows are to Movies?

So Penelope Trunk wrote a book. I previously wrote about her here. A commentator on one of blog-posts asks: Penelope, I read your blog regularly. Is there anything in your new book that I wouldn’t have already gotten from your blog? Either way, I’ll probably buy it… but I was just curious. Posted by Kelly [...]

The Myths Of Innovation

In the knowledge economy, Innovation represents the Holy Grail : the undisputed source of wealth, pride and prestige. It is one of the most respected and worshiped word in corporate vocabulary. Yet you can hardly find organisations that share a same definition, let alone have a clear plan to manage it. The reason is : [...]

The Internet does not make much sense… On pricing digital goods and other illogicalities

“From my cold, dead hands…” It’s something that came to mind as I was thinking about writing this post. The part that doesn’t make sense about the Internet, today and perhaps since ever, is that American concept of “Freedom,” of independence and lack of governance. In my post on piracy, my point was not complete. [...]

E’ship diary part 6: on the important matter of product design

I made a fairly big mistake with my company at the start, I tried to segment functions in the company too fast. Maybe it was my business education, maybe it was books like “The E-myth Revisited,” and certainly it was my lack of management experience, but I tried to keep my area focussed on business [...]

IDEA GENERATION: what is your workflow?

I asked yesterday for a more graphical and intuitive way to plan out costs for products and projects. The reason lies in an essay I co-authored several years ago with Jeremy Fein, co-founder of this blog. I forget the exact title of the thing, but its premise was that good entrepreneurial teams are composed of [...]

Enterprise 2.0 Vs Diffusion of Innovation

After reading the excellent Andrew McAfee Enterprise 2.0 book, I was wondering if there was any point for Heavy Mental to publish yet another review. There already are plenty around with Venkatesh Rao’s on Enterprise 2.0 blog and Gil Yehuda’s probably being the most interesting ones. It might be more valuable to offer a perspective [...]

An e’diary part 2: what are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur

This post is part of a series, a diary of starting a business if you will. It follows part 1, the decision of becoming an entrepreneur. One thing I found out is that it’s hard to put your responsibilities down on paper… there are so many!!! There is of course a basic job-description, which more [...]

Thoughts on the (iTablet) iPad – connectivity, apps, multitasking, integrating with Macs

The following is a draft I wrote prior to the announcement of the iPad, but which I didn’t publish because it was a series of hypotheses based on an as yet non-existing product. It’s a series of thoughts on how an interface of a touchscreen larger than an iPhone might look like. It is inspired [...]

My computing context and what I think about the iPad

OK, time to write a few words about the iPad. In true spirit of fanboyishness I started (and finished) writing this post in bed on my iPod Touch. Let me start by saying that with reservations I want the iPad. Reservations include that like you, I haven’t actually used the device, and that it doesn’t [...]

Political & Commercial World Powers and the Dynamics of Education

As is usual when I take a long break from writing, my blog posts end up becoming insanely long. Take it as you will, but I’ve tried to make it as coherent a post as possible. P.S. this is a post written under de cover of my “leave of absence,” which means I still write, [...]

Think different – Nokia was the Apple of mobile phones

What many of you might not know is that the reason Nokia became the biggest mobile phone manufacturer is because of Apple. When all their competitors were standing still, Nokia decided to think a bit differently. This story was one of the hidden gems in “Fast Strategy“, a book co-authored by Mikko Kosonen, a former [...]

The Dynamics of Blogging and the Dynamics of Doing Business

where I write about how the process blogging and that of business are incompatible.