’social intelligence’ quote

You can still get sent to the metaphorical principal’s office for it I suspect.

‘social intelligence’ quote….

Thanks for nothing — by Susan Maushart in The Australian is totally off-topic for what I normally post in this category, but I loved the following quote:

“When I was a kid, “social intelligence” was what you got sent to the principal for. Today, it’s the stuff of merit certificates and hand stamps.”

[judith meskill’s knowledge notes…]

'Perfect Pitch' Deadline — Less Than 78 Hours and Counting!.

‘Perfect Pitch’ Deadline — Less Than 78 Hours and Counting!.

clock1Ticktock, ticktock, ticktock… Have you submitted your most impressive one minute elevator pitch expounding the benefits of corporate weblogging?clock2

Time is running out so please submit your most cogent, clinching, compelling, convincing 50 160 word elevator pitch on the EXTREME benefits of corporate adoption of weblogging like NOW!

clock3 Once again, here are the Rules & Regulations and we look forward to your entry!

tickTock, Ticktock, tickTock

The judging panelists are standing by eagerly await your expert, excellent, expressive, extraordinary, exciting, essential, energetic, effusive, eloquent, educated, elegant, enlightened, erudite entries (-:=clock5

[The Social Software Weblog]

David Allen’s Ready for Anything – 50 Book Challenge

Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life
Allen, David

I’m definitely a fan of David Allen. His first book, Getting Things Done, should definitely be on your reading list, as should his new blog. Ready for Anything is an organized collection of David’s periodic essays and reflections on getting things done. Each is only a page or two long, but contains distilled wisdom and helps prod backsliders like me into action.

David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself – 50 Book Challenge

The Man Who Folded Himself
Gerrold, David

This is a book that’s been recommended to me off and on over the years. It’s in print again and after getting hooked on Gerrold’s War Against the Chtorr series last summer I read this back in January. I think I like Heinlein’s “By His Bootstraps” a little bit better, but this is definitely a keeper in the time-travel sub-genre. What it does nicely is to explore the human dimension relentlessly.

Dan Brown's Deception Point – 50 Book Challenge

Deception Point
Brown, Dan

More from Dan Brown. He’s not Tom Clancy quite yet, but he’s working in territory that I find interesting in its own right. Here he explores how power and scientific knowledge interact. For those, like me, who bias toward science and the rational and don’t naturally pick up on the human and the natural, Deception Point helps you remember why those with high EQs are typically in charge of those with high IQs.

Dan Brown's Digital Fortress – 50 Book Challenge

Digital Fortress : A Thriller
Brown, Dan

I thought The Da Vinci Code was ok but ultimately implausible and I thought the ending was pulled out of a hat. On the other hand, there’s no question that Dan Brown can write a good page turner, so I went looking for his earlier books (what can I say, when it comes to reading I am a gourmand not a gourmet). Digital Fortress was Brown’s first book, I believe, and I found it much more satisfying than the Da Vinci Code. What I found particularly interesting is how he explores how technical plausibility collides with the human dimensions of fear and paranoia in large organizations. His canvas here is the NSA, but the lessons are worth thinking about in more mundane contexts. So you get a nice thriller that moves and some food for thought about how digital technology affects big organizations. A nice twofer.

Mark Hurst on bit literacy

I continue to track Mark Hurst's thoughts about bit literacy with interest. I came across this originally reading Richard Saul Wurman's Information Anxiety 2, which should definitely be on your reading list if you haven't read it already.

Good Experience: Bit literacy: an overview. Obviously, bits have become more important to the average technology user since then. In fact, I find that the essay – although it predates those developments – is even more relevant in 2004. Thus I plan to write more about bit literacy this year. [Tomalak's Realm]

Here's the key graf:

To have a chance to survive the infinite bits in the future, we'll need a lot of bit literacy: in our behavior (letting go of bits), in our beliefs (searching for the meaning behind the bits), and in our technology — with simpler tools granting us control over the bits, and working with bits in their simplest formats. And as we shift to becoming not just consumers but *creators* of bits, the discipline of bit literacy will show us how to *create* bits differently: mindfully, meaningfully, and with an acceptance of their essential emptiness.

In a world where information is carried in physical containers (e.g., books, reports, papers), the containers set limits for us. With bits, we need to exercise explicit managerial control.