The price of narcissism Bob Sutton rounds up some interesting research on the narcissism of CEOs - and the measurable costs to their organisations. One example: CEOs who received praise in the media were likely to overpay for companies they acquired. Worth reading it...

Disrespectful, disruptive innovation I am not a particular lover of Ryanair, and I think of myself as pro-Europe. Nevertheless, I throughly enjoyed this video of Michael O'Leary being fabulously irreverent to his hosts at a Brussels innovation conference. There seems to be a...

Beyond truth to power? Chris Corrigan spots this post by Tom Attlee about the Occupy Movement at UC Davis in California. Tom describes the scene in this video. Police confront students and it looks as though it's all going to turn very ugly. Then...

Show time For the last few weeks I've been doing some improv classes with the good folks at Sprout. We'll be putting on a show at the beginning of December. So if you want to see me possibly falling on my ass...

Simple ideas, lightly held A few years back I contributed a chapter to the More Space project. I had a look at it again recently and thought it still stood up pretty well. Here's the pdf: Simple Ideas, Lightly Held. (The title is a...

Term papers and gobbledegook Another part of Cathy Davidson's article that caught my eye was her discussion of term papers in college. She asks a question I've been asking for a while now:What if bad writing is a product of the form of writing...

Solar panels based on trees Gizmodo reports how a 13-year-old boosts the effectiveness of solar panels by adapting the structure of trees.Did you hear that? All of the smart-guys in the country who spent their time trying to make solar power more efficient were...

Porosity Neil Perkin examines the success of the New York Times paywall. In a nutshell, it works because it's porous. Porosity is a concept that's caught my attention before. I guess it goes pretty closely with a tolerance for ambiguity....

Crime and punishment Alexander Lee reminds us of Thomas Paine's wisdom - something I'm fearful we ae short of at the moment.For Paine, even the most heinous crimes must be punished with justice and moderation, and with more regard for liberty than revenge....

Everything a remix I really liked the series of videos at Everything is a Remix. Here's the third one: Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo. I think this really cuts through a lot of views of creativity that...

Trust... I enjoyed John Hagel's latest post, Resolving the Trust Paradox. I do think paradoxes are interesting; shifting perspective to paradox from contradiction often seems to open up new possibilities. I think I broadly agree with John that the way...

Buddha's Brain I've enjoyed reading Buddha's Brain, a blend of neuroscience and Buddhist philosophy. The opening chapters were especially remarkable, as they describe in layman's terms the extraordinary things that go on in our brains as we go about our daily routines....

Creepy customer service measurement Oscar Wilde famously defined a cynic as a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. I was reminded of this at a bank this morning when I went to the counter to make a transaction....

Advertising, flow states and me Euan has a go at the mindlessness of most of what passes for marketing these days. I confess I'm pretty much a grumpy old man about it myself, grumbling and sometimes shouting at many of the ads on the TV...

Failing fast It seems like everyone is singing the benefits of fast failure these days. Avoid blame cultures! Throw mud at the wall! Just give it a try! If it doesn't work, no big deal. I get it. We're so very agile,...