Lying Fascinating report from The Economist: How to tell when your boss is lying. Researchers identify a number of patterns common to CEOs and CFOs who turn out, with hindsight, to have misled analysts. Apparently, the liars tend to make more...

Great invitations You probably know the story, quite possibly apocryphal, of Ernest Shackleton's newspaper ad for crew for his expedition to the South Pole:MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. LOW WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG HOURS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS. SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOUR AND...

The mundane can be interesting I don't get excited about companies changing their logos, but I liked this time lapse video of the four days to repaint a Virgin Atlantic Jumbo. I think there's an interesting moral about marketing. Sometimes something apparently mundane (the process...

We can't go on meeting like this Together with my friends Oli Barrett, Stephen Wrentmore and Trish Stevenson, I'll be hosting an evening called We can't go on meeting like this. It's on September 6th, 6 for 6.30pm till 8.30pm. Somewhere in Central London, exact venue to...

Beginnings and endings On Facebook, Patti Digh offers some fabulous advice:To my friends with kids moving to college next week, I have but three pieces of advice: 1) Handcart. Trust me. You'll make 2 trips instead of 15; 2) Make the day about...

Quotes I've picked these from twitter in the last day or so. "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not 'Eureka!'--it's 'that's funny'" Isaac Asimov via @dearsarah Be what you are. This...

Music business as nasty neighbours I guess most of us, growing up, had the grouchy-old-man neighbour? In Bishop's Avenue, he lived a few doors along in the white bungalow hidden behind large bushes. He was known to all of us as the nasty man who...

Hire learners Great post by TIm Kastelle: Don’t Hire Experience, Hire Learners. He includes this quote from the book ReWork:There’s surprisingly little difference between a candidate with six months of experience and one with six years. The real difference comes from the...

The perils of philosophy (Click here if you can't see the video embed.) This NSFW video made me laugh. I can't explain how I scraped a degree in Philosophy and Politics whilst having a nervous breakdown. I get lost the moment I'm expected...

Thinking Hotel This weekend an experimental Thinking Hotel is happening in Soho, London, over 24 hours from Saturday to Sunday noon. Here's the essence:The Thinking Hotel is a vision of a future social enterprise that aims to create a chain of places...

Not your grandfather's kind of recession.. This Economist blogger see signs of significant organisation among the unemployed in America. Unlike previous downturns, this time there is low cost networking available to help those without work develop a cohesive political response to their situation.What's happening now, with...

More network innovation... Is this a sign of the times? Villagers set up ultra-cheap broadband. The village of Northlew were informed by BT that if they wanted broadband, they'd have to come up with £600k. In the end, they formulated a £50k solution...

Abundant innovation I know I bang on about this, but I keep running into examples of how abundant innovative thinking is, while large organisations and their advisers wring their hands about how hard it is. A tweet from @thomascdaly led me to...

Language David Gurteen makes some interesting connections to my post a few weeks back on willpower and its limits.This is the kind of research that is so important as it questions ways of thinking and working, so deeply entrenched that we...

Social glue, served with elegance. For hire. I liked this quote:“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” - Camille PissarroIt's used by Lloyd Davis as an introduction to his pitch for work as a social artist. If the title...