My memory was a sieve. I could remember nothing. Dates, names, appointments, faces – everything escaped me. I said to my wife, “Catherine, I shall never make a successful politician, for I cannot remember, and that is a prime necessity of politicians.”

My wife told me I must train my memory. So, when I came home that night, I sat down and spent fifteen minutes trying silently to recall with accuracy the principal events of the day. I could remember but little at first; now I remember that I could not then recall what I had for breakfast. After a few days’ practice I found I could recall more. Events came back to me more minutely, more accurately, and more vividly than at first. After a fortnight or so of this, Catherine said, “Why don’t you relate to me the events of the day, instead of recalling them to yourself? It would be interesting and my interest in it would be a stimulus to you.”

Having great respect for my wife’s opinion, I began a habit of oral confession, as it were, which was continued for almost fifty years. Every night, the last thing before retiring, I told her everything I could remember that had happened to me, or about me, during the day. I generally recalled the dishes I had had for breakfast, dinner, and tea; the people I had seen, and what they had said; the editorials I had written for my paper, giving her a brief abstract of them. I mentioned all the letters I had sent and received, and the very language used, as nearly as possible; when I had walked or ridden – I told her everything that had come within my observation.

I found I could say my lessons better and better every year, and instead of the practice growing irksome, it became a please to go over again the events of the day. I am indebted to this discipline for a memory of somewhat unusual tenacity, and I recommend the practice to all who wish to store up facts, or expect to have much to do with influencing men.

- From How to Study and Teaching How to Study By Frank Morton McMurry (reprint of 1909 book-Houghton Mifflin)

I’ve been doing this for a couple of months and it’s true that it gets easier as time goes on. I was trying to find out how long Mr. Weed did it before the effects kicked in and it seems the answer is 50 years.

The other interesting part is what he recalled (and also how awesome his wife must have been, letting a man talk that much must have been great):

• the dishes he had had for breakfast, dinner, and tea
• the people he had seen
• what those people had said
• the editorials he had written for my paper, giving her a brief abstract of them
• all the letters he had sent and received, and the very language used, as nearly as possible
• everything that he had observed when he was out and about

I was primarily repeating the conversations of the day and interesting thoughts, but this is a good list of things to start with.

I also think that the practice of telling these things to someone would improve your story telling skills. I guess he tried to make the day’s events more lively and interesting for his wife and over the years he probably did that more and more. What an amazing practice.

If his devotion were determined by his lack of “faith in ceremonials and forms,” or by his failure “to observe the Sabbath very scrupulously,” Swett added, “he would fall far short of the standard.” However, if he were judged “by the higher rule of purity of conduct, of honesty of motive, of unyielding fidelity to the right,” or by his powerful belief ”in the great laws of truth, the rigid discharge of duty, his accountability to God,” then he was undoubtedly “full of natural religion,” for “he believed in God as much as the most approved Church member.”

- Pg. 699 from Team of Rivals by Doris Kerns Goodwin

A way of being that every person should strive for.

Karl Marx was perhaps the original prophet of the Pro-Am economy. As Demos notes, “In The German Ideology, written between 1845 and 1847, Marx maintained that labor-forced, unspontaneous and waged work-would be superseded by self-activity.” Eventually he hoped, there would be a time when “material production leaves every person surplus time for other activities.” Marx evoked a communist society in which “…nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes…toto hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.

I find it hard not to be very sympathetic to such a compelling vision of how it could be. What I find distressing is that many of the ideologies take such a small window of human nature into view that when implemented on a society they fail. I think that goes for both communism and Friedman-like capitalism.

The main part of human nature that is usually neglected to be inspected carefully enough is greed and human ambition. In the case of both capitalism and communism there are certain members of the society that were able to keep the money from circulating and were able to help it to pool at their doorstep, which brings the whole ideology to a stop.

But how great it would be if everyone could work a few hours a day at something to contribute to society and then be free to work on your own interest and see where you can take it. Unfortunately, for those in poverty they may be working two or three jobs, which means no time for personal interest. Those in the middle class often work ten hours a day or more and with the kind of lifestyle we have you end up to tired to pursue your own interests.

In the end there are some good theories, but when brought to life they are found to be incomplete.

I would like to write about what I learn that makes a company run well (or not as may be the case). I have started a new job within Sony as the Senior Web Analyst and Online Marketing Specialist. The job is for Sony Style, which is the store of Sony, where you can buy many Sony products.

It is quite a small department compared to working for VAIO or another product group. It is nice that way because I can see pretty well many of the important decisions that are being made. Especially as I am in charge of web analytics it is my responsibility to help people find the information they need to make those decisions.

It is interesting to start to understand, for the first time really, what challenges a commerce web shop faces. It is also interesting to be able to clearly see what works and what doesn’t work.

The main topics that I want to write about are traffic acquisition, merchandising strategy, delivering on your promises, promotion, Google Adwords, site usability, html coding, etc.

I really get tired of reading articles about RFID tags. It’s like the people making the technology are so convinced in the benefits that they ignore the fact that nobody wants them.

I think if you want to do some really cool things you can do it with current bar codes and you don’t need little tracking devices.

For example, the article mentions an in-booth intercom system for alerting sales staff that you need a different size. Well with an existing bar code why not just set up a simple scanner and give people a little touch screen that lets people push a button for a larger or smaller size. Tie that into the in-store system to show the customer stock availability and you have a super value add. No need to make the embarrassing call that you need a bigger size.

And RFID please stay in your grave and come back when you are ready to listen to your customers.

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This is so cute. I am definitely going to make one of these.

I think the nose is pretty said, i’ll use a rivet. Too cute.

37336369_4aade2386f.jpg (JPEG Image, 500×334 pixels)

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So what changed? A little while ago I read about allofmp3.com. I immediately went to the site and tried to buy some music, but I found out that Visa had stopped allowing them to process credit card transactions. So I left for a while. I was quite frustrated actually. Here I am willing to buy, but not willing to buy something that ties me into one player (even though I am a devote iPod fan and have owned one since 2004).

Here is how I see it: It’s easier for me to buy music rather than download (steal if you will). But, it if I can’t have a non-DRM mp3 then it is just as easy to download it. Allofmp3 takes it even further by charging based on demand for the song. The music industry is really going to lose this battle.

In then end I think where things will go is like this: Sites like MySpace will act as a sandbox for musicians. Artists with great music will get picked up by labels who will sell their music to advertisers and the bands will get paid huge amounts for that. Meanwhile, bands will sell their music directly through sites like Allofmp3 and others (or directly through MySpace). Radios will start selling music directly. When you hear a song you like, you go to their site and buy the music. The Artist gets some money, the station gets some music and that is it.

technorati tags:music, mp3

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Key points
1- Make sure you know who is your potential “high-value” player, which is the person who will place the most value on the deal.
2- Find the decision makers and make sure your they agree with you, then they will sell you from the inside.
3- Make sure that all the people who carry influence are part of the negotiation
4- Getting things going in the right direction are more important than fighting about a few points at the end, take a lesson from the Japanese, by the time you have your close meeting the deal is already won or lost.
5- Make sure you have the right agent by watching for conflicts of interest.
6- Remember others who might not be part of the deal, but may need to later approve the deal, like regulators etc.
7- Know who the big boys are and work with them first before you let smaller players in. Once the biggest players agree then let the smaller parties come aboard.

Blogger Endorsements?

August 06, 2004 | Comments 29 Comments

Summary: A discussion around independent publishing and paid endorsements.

I want to go a little further with this topic.

WHAT IS WORK?