Scott Levy http://scottilevy.com Ideas collected. posterous.com Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:51:56 -0700 Where great ideas come from... http://scottilevy.com/where-great-ideas-come-from http://scottilevy.com/where-great-ideas-come-from


Really enjoyed this, going to check out the book...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:26:00 -0700 PowerPoint LevelUp http://scottilevy.com/stop-making-lousy-powerpoints-please http://scottilevy.com/stop-making-lousy-powerpoints-please
If your presentations suck, your audience is likely daydreaming.   Stop hitting people over the head with "facts" and start telling a compelling story - here is Cliff Atkinson's take. 
Combine this with Jungian archetypes (a la the "brand" gurus) and Cialdani's research collections around influence, and finally "Get Your Point Across in the 30 Seconds or Less" and see if your success doesn't rise dramatically....

Here is a Cliff Atkinson overview I found (wish I could find the one I saw years ago):

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:03:09 -0700 congrats vchatter http://scottilevy.com/congrats-vchatter http://scottilevy.com/congrats-vchatter Congrats to vChatter - 4 Million+ Video calls, 1 Million+ Monthly Active Users, 100K+ Likes.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Sun, 02 May 2010 08:07:00 -0700 G-townsurf.com reminds me of the best of home http://scottilevy.com/g-townsurfcom-reminds-me-about-the-best-of-ho http://scottilevy.com/g-townsurfcom-reminds-me-about-the-best-of-ho

Pastedgraphic 0pastedgraphic 1pastedgraphic 2pastedgraphic
See the full gallery on Posterous

Everything is dependent on the weather, but when things come together, they really come together to make for great days and decent waves. Check out g-townsurf.com for updates. All photos are from G-Townsurf.com

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Sat, 01 May 2010 09:21:49 -0700 Music link fixed http://scottilevy.com/music-link-fixed http://scottilevy.com/music-link-fixed http://scottilevy.com/blast-from-a-musical-1995-past

Thanks to those who let me know it was down.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Sat, 01 May 2010 07:59:09 -0700 Interesting Effect http://scottilevy.com/interesting-effect-0 http://scottilevy.com/interesting-effect-0 > Courtesy my friend Will: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:07:47 -0700 Great example of Customer Development http://scottilevy.com/great-example-of-customer-development http://scottilevy.com/great-example-of-customer-development The DMA is using a great process to determine who to have play at their next Late Night's At the DMA event: asking their fans and followers who they want to see/hear:

http://twtpoll.com/rrusf5

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:32:00 -0700 Law of the instrument http://scottilevy.com/law-of-the-instrument http://scottilevy.com/law-of-the-instrument

I do keep seeing the idea of Maslow's hammer all around - it's good to remind myself of it to stay honest and keep learning:

"It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_instrument

Keep learning, keep improving - there are no "golden hammers" that work to solve every problem.


This thought brought to you by Skorks.com

http://www.skorks.com/2010/03/you-dont-need-math-skills-to-be-a-good-develope...

That in turn courtesy of Will Bunker: http://makematters.blogspot.com

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:44:18 -0700 John Wooden Speaking at TED http://scottilevy.com/john-wooden-speaking-at-ted http://scottilevy.com/john-wooden-speaking-at-ted

I just like hearing John Wooden.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:43:00 -0800 Can you balance structure and creativity to innovate? Check this video and today's assignment. http://scottilevy.com/can-you-balance-structure-and-creativity-to-i http://scottilevy.com/can-you-balance-structure-and-creativity-to-i

Can you balance structure and creativity to innovate? My friend Brannen can -  and sound brilliant all the while: 

In improvisational music, people often don't realize the musicians are required to have a deep understanding of structures: chord progressions, song forms, their instruments, and the way elements can be juxtaposed.   Again and again, the most creative musicians are the most studied.   Count Basie, like the Beatles, came up playing for hours on end.  Jimmy Hendrix toured with a blues band before he was a "front man".   Mozart:  his dad was a teacher and worked young Wolfie's behind off.

While some might argue that Brannen was born funky, I can tell you this is a guy who has been at this for quite a while and who thinks about the music.  He can articulate subleties of what he does, how he concieves of music, and working with others, and he listens with a keen ear.  No offense Brannen you may also have been born funky, I am just thinking back to a conversation we had years ago...

In any case, here is todays assignment: Devote 15 minutes to the following

- Identify three simple steps could you take today to deepen your understanding of some aspect of your business.  
- Spend 10 minutes on it (read an article, browse the Web, study a company you admire)
- Brainstorm 5 actions you could take to improve your business based on what you've just learned.  Don't analyze them, just brainstorm

Keep the results in a notebook or file.  Beware, if you do this every day you are likely to come up with great ideas.

PS- check out more of Brannen and Blaze at youtube.com/btempdrum

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:29:40 -0800 "Enterprise Software" Running Out of Excuses for Stinking. http://scottilevy.com/enterprise-software-running-out-of-excuses-fo http://scottilevy.com/enterprise-software-running-out-of-excuses-fo
I gave a talk last year to a group of enterprise software executives entitled "Paper is an Information Technology."  The point of the talk was to get people thinking outside of enterprise software boxes and realize that software changes drastically, and "enterprise software" will follow suit in short order.  The industry is beginning to publically push in this direction, as evidenced by this article (sent to me by Will Bunker) : http://scobleizer.com/2010/03/10/the-revolution-at-work-the-industry-reacts-to-salesforces-moves/

What I think is profoundly important to people who seek to work together (i.e. transact business, start a company, gain customers, etc.)   is that organizations - particularly those people who consider themselves 'technologists'  - need to think in terms of human interactions, and how to facilitate and enable those interactions through technology *without casting the interactions in terms of technology"

There was a time a time where a good geek could impress executives by setting up some working software that did ________ automatically.   "Wow, that's cool!" is what you'd hear for getting a simple database driven Web site up.  Those days are gone, and technology is now ubiquitous.  It's not longer enough just to put a system together.  Today startups with no money have access to the types of automation that cost six figures and months of implementation time 5-10 years ago.  

The challenge for "IT" is to stop thinking in terms of "IT" and start thinking in terms of human relationships and interactions: within the organization, between organizations, relationships between the organization and the people it serves.   Doug Levy (friend but no relation) and my friends over at IMC2 highlight these changes by talking about "the Relationship Era" in marketing (check it out at IMC2.com).  

I think this idea applies far more broadly than how we market; it has always applied to collaboration and every aspect of business - we just have not been able to focus on it the way we can today.   If you look at the companies performing like champs right now - the Amazons, the Googles, Zappos, Facebook - they all share an approach that focuses on how they interact with people.  This focus leads these companies to make decisions that "traditional IT" would not even consider - decisions that place human interactions above technology.  What's fun to see is that more and more companies are doing this today.  We are witnessing evolution, the kind Seth Godin describes in his great book <u>Survival is Not Enough</u>

Here are some things going on that I think are helping drive these changes in thinking for more and more companies: 

1.  Today there are folks driving technology who do not recognize traditional departmental prejudices that exist in most corporations.    IT, Sales, and Marketing typically are all at odds.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people in one department express frustration with "_______ types" (fill in one of the departments).  This happens because people refuse to grasp the idea that I have worked, and continue to work in all three areas.  If I can speak their language in sales, and sell, they presume my technical skills are limited.  If I can show them high quality code I have written, and discuss pen-protector grade geek fu, they presume I cannot sell.  Same things happen on engagement where I do marketing consulting.  I  know I am not alone on experiencing this.  In any case, here's a news flash:  prejudice has limited utility to say the least.

The companies that maintain such prejudices have been selected for extinction and will be outmaneuvered.  It's happening now - perhaps these are the companies the build up employee numbers rather than employee skills....so that when a downturn happens, they have to cut people.   

Either way, the take away: If you work in an organization and make decisions on its behalf in any of these three areas (sales, marketing, IT), you have no excuse for not understanding as much as you can about every aspect of the business - including the two areas you don't think of yourself as knowing  At the end of the day these distinctions exist to help us divide and conquer many different types of concerns.  They are not in place to allow us to be lazy and neglect understanding things critical to the business.

2.  Open Source has matured, and is now part of business strategy.   How do todays industry leaders get amazing things done in technology?  They help build communities that share innovations.  I had a client once tell me he would never use open source.  His vendor of choice is now forcing him to because they have rolled jQuery into their Web development platform.   Additionally,  look at Google,  Yahoo, NetFlix (and a host of other companies). Guess what else they have in common:  they sponsor open source projects that help them develop more with less.  It's brilliant.  Immanuel Kant would be proud 

3.  Furthering point number two, there are open source technologies available that offer the type of architectural conventions, flexibility, performance and security required for "enterprise grade" solutions, without being burdened by closed source constraints.

4.  No one ever bothered to teach younger, up and coming professionals that they had to rely on your favorite technology vendor.  And fewer people have had to rely on one software vendor to learn about practical business technologies - we can all learn technology on the Web.  

The moral of this story:  KEEP LEARNING, and stay focused on people interactions.  There are going to be constraints in technology, each will carry a cost to overcome, but if you are literate, you have the best chance of finding real ways to help people through innovative uses of the Web.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:33:32 -0800 Google owns 2 of the top 5 and 3 of the top 10. http://scottilevy.com/google-owns-2-of-the-top-5-and-3-of-the-top-1 http://scottilevy.com/google-owns-2-of-the-top-5-and-3-of-the-top-1 Doing some research for work this morning.  Noticed that Google owns 3 of the top 10 most visited sites on the planet and 2 of the top 5.
Microsoft owns 2 of the top 10.   http://www.alexa.com/topsites.

Just interesting to me...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:39:44 -0800 Will was interviewed.... http://scottilevy.com/will-was-interviewed http://scottilevy.com/will-was-interviewed Go with your bad self Will.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:44:12 -0800 Dolphins Get Stoked Too http://scottilevy.com/dolphins-get-stoked-too http://scottilevy.com/dolphins-get-stoked-too Great Huglin takes fine pictures of dolphins playing and "surfing" big waves. Had to share/hope you enjoy.

Daily Mail Online news article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1251711/Every-dolphins-gone-surfin-St...

Greg Huglin's site:
http://www.greghuglin.com/

Special thanks to the Surfrider Foundation (http://www.surfrider.org/) for sharing the Daily Mail story.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:15:54 -0800 Ben Franklin on Facebook and Lifestreaming http://scottilevy.com/ben-franklin-on-facebook-and-lifestreaming http://scottilevy.com/ben-franklin-on-facebook-and-lifestreaming I was looking for a particular passage from Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography for my son who is doing a report on the esteemed inventor, philosopher, publisher, entrepreneur, scientist, statesman and leader.  I came across them gem and had to share it:

"I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was under for the printing-house. In order to secure my credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I drest plainly; I was seen at no places of idle diversion. I never went out a-fishing or shooting; a book, indeed, sometimes debauched me from my work, but that was seldom, snug, and gave no scandal; and, to show that I was not above my business, I sometimes brought home the paper I purchased at the stores thro' the streets on a wheelbarrow. Thus being esteemed an industrious, thriving young man, and paying duly for what I bought, the merchants who imported stationery solicited my custom; others proposed supplying me with books, and I went on swimmingly."

I  find myself wondering how I might examine my facebook and twitter profiles, and clean them up in light of this approach.  Don't just "keep your nose clean" and be honest....*look* like you are "keeping your nose clean" and being honest as well.  

Great marketing advice for the information age from a couple of centuries back.  

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:24:22 -0800 Just launched a new blog for dads: HowToRaiseAParent http://scottilevy.com/just-launched-a-new-blog-for-dads-howtoraisea http://scottilevy.com/just-launched-a-new-blog-for-dads-howtoraisea Ideas, essays and ramblings focused on our experiences as dads (and maybe moms too) : http://HowToRaiseAParent.wordpress.com.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:52:09 -0800 Hackers and Painters http://scottilevy.com/hackers-and-painters http://scottilevy.com/hackers-and-painters This remains one of my favorite essays.

http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:47:00 -0800 MIT's Scratch: A Fun Software Development Environment For Kids of All Ages http://scottilevy.com/mits-scratch-great-computer-learning-platform http://scottilevy.com/mits-scratch-great-computer-learning-platform

My friend Will Bunker turned me to the Scratch Web site and development environment. Scratch lets a child of any age build an interactive application - games, greeting cards, all kinds of stuff. Kids can also set up a social network account (specific to Scratch) and friend people and comment on games. One of my favorite features is that all of the projects can be downloaded so that you can modify them and learn from them.

Web site: http://scratch.mit.edu/

Getting started guide: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Get_Started

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:31:00 -0800 The Dallas Museum of Art is 107. Check Out This Friday's Late Night at the DMA. http://scottilevy.com/dma-is-107-check-out-this-fridays-late-night http://scottilevy.com/dma-is-107-check-out-this-fridays-late-night

One of my favorite activities whether for kids or dates - Late nights at the DMA. It's a fun way to experience the Dallas Museum of Art, and the kids have a great time. Suitable for kids (and adults) who have the ability to discipline their urge to climb on sculptures.

http://www.dallasmuseumofart.org/Events/LateNights/index.htm

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:28:00 -0800 What Ideas Are Holding Us Back? http://scottilevy.com/which-idea-of-our-is-holding-us-back http://scottilevy.com/which-idea-of-our-is-holding-us-back

In the year...say...1450, we knew - KNEW the world was flat. At one point in time scholars and church leadership argued (and took lives) over the idea of zero.  By argue I mean if you professed belief in the concept of zero or a vacuum, you were put to death. 

In 1895 men of science were sure that the atom was the smallest particle in the universe.  Human flight, space travel, flux capacitors all are ideas that at one point in time were simply unthinkable things that "could not be" realities. Ok, perhaps flux capacitors are still science fiction.

Many ideas still come to mind.  When my father played high school football in the 1950's it was believed lifting weights made you slow and inflexible.  The idea of staying focused on a vision in sports along with   the idea of preparing mentally through visualization would have been considered silliness.

Things change. Yesterday's certainty becomes folly tomorrow.

In his various seminars, Self Development Marketer extraordinairre Anthony Robbins discusses the idea of limiting versus empowering beliefs.  I am trying hard to remember where I first heard it expressed this way:  "There two kinds of people. There are those who think they can, and those who think they can't.  Both are [kinds] are right".

It is interesting to look at our ideas as a society through the lense of our beliefs as well. 

I wonder what ideas I have - and what ideas we have as a society -  right now, that will undergo seemingly radical, unthinkable changes in future.

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/59060/47b8ce08b3127cce98548a95146a00000026108ActXDhizaud_2.jpeg http://posterous.com/users/15YgU2AiBeF Scott Levy Scott I Levy Scott Levy