The Tent

Made to Stick

Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas?

Highly creative types for sure have many ideas a day. Which ones are good, which ones will you decide to focus your energy on, which ones will you bring up to this world? This is basically up to you.

I think many people have great ideas, but just a few are able to discern the good ones and bring them to life, following their intuition, keep being flexible and open to changes, and focus energy on the idea until its completion. It is also a question of courage, guts, and being grounded.

Made to Stick should be a good read. If the book is not for you, Talking Strategy: Three Straightforward Ways to Make Your Strategy Stick is available for download on ChangeThis.

Success

When I was living in Germany, I had a subscription for the fabulous german magazine Brand Eins. By reading the magazine for 2 years, it changed my mind not only once. I learned so much from the well-written and critical articles about economy, society and psychology. It was one of my most important sources of inspiration… sitting silently, having a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning and reading Brand Eins gave me an energy boost for the week to come!

Anyways, when I moved to Montréal I canceled the subscription. I knew that they archive all magazines online but I never had a look at it. Until yesterday… And the power of the magazine got me into it, again.

I discovered an excellent article about “success”. You might think “oh my god, another article about success and how to be successful from a self-nominated success guru”. But no, not at all. The article gives a historical overview from the beginning of the industrialized society and the first books written on this subject by people who believed that everyone can be successful – whatever this means. Additionally the relationship between luck and success is covered as well as the term success and its meaning recently – “nowadays success is defined as material success only”.

If you can read german and if you feel like looking behind some values of our society, this article is a must for you. Check it out here.

Free culture, free audio

The audio version of the book Free Culture is available, for free, on the in-der-net.

Get it here, stream or download.

Via Nicolas.

Stop everything now

I stood up in my first grade class and said, “Do these chairs have to be in row? Can we put them in a circle, or sit on the floor?”

I also began to invent illnesses so i could stay home from school and read, write and create.

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How many of you recognize yourself into this? Add your email, website or blog adress in the comment field. We should be friends.

Taken from Sark’s Creative Companion updated edition.

Orbiting the giant hairball

If you are a creative, stuck into the corporate world, this book my help you finding your way to happiness without having to leave your job.

Pour tout les multis de la terre qui me lisent et qui sont pris dans un moule appelé le 9 à 5, dans une boite invisible mais bien réelle, entourés de gens qui se ressemblent tous et qui vous dévisagent à cause de votre différence, je vous suggère de jeter un coup d’oeil à ce livre.

I am not through yet – i have just been reading the part where the author ask his boss to define his new job title as ‘Creative Paradox’, and being myself so lost trying to find a title that describe myself and what i do, this chapter made me smile and think i should share this right here now.

Done.

He’s just not that into you

or i’m just not into it.

This book – He’s just not that into you – a q’s and a’s book dedicated to woman, offering them advices about dating issues – seems to be everywhere i go, excerpts are on every websites, even my friends bring it up to me.

all i can say is Stooooop it!

Do we really need another book about how to do things right? What’s wrong, what’s hot, what’s not, what’s in, what’s out, how to loose 10 pounds in a second, how to get more productive, better housewife, friends, neighbors, girls, boys, dogs… grrrr.

How about a book titled ‘how to shape an opinion about life by yourself’?

This said, get out there, try things, follow your guts, your intuition. Do things as you feel like to do them – stop waiting for someone to tell you how to live-eat-sleep-talk-walk or take a piss.

I havn’t read the book, but i’ve heard enough about it in the last days to shape my own opinion. Trash, garbage, not for me thanx.

English vs French: Why i prefer english newspapers

I have been living in montreal for 4 years before i left for germany. These 4 years, i haven’t been faced with the anglo part of the city, and i never got really interested in knowing about these people who spoke english. I was living in the ‘french’ part of the city, going to a french speaking cegep, mostly always walking around areas such as la petite italie and le plateau. This was 10 years ago.

Things have changed.

I came back to montreal last june after spending 4 years in a country with one main langage: german. Even if half of the country is populated with turkish, indian, french, italians and english folks, all newspapers were in german (beside some indie newspapers of course).

Being back here, i discover hidden treasures about living in a half french half anglo city. Believe me, this is a wonderful thing, beside all the fighting about culture and language differences.

One of these thing being to have french and english newspapers (La Presse, Le Devoir, Ici, Voir, The Gazette, National Post, Hour and Mirror to name a few of them), and even french articles in english written newspapers (reference here is Pascal Montpetit’s chronicles on saturdays).

So people, if you can read french and english, you have a large choice. And if you have been living abroad for some time, you can appreciate to have this choice even more.

I do.

Starting from there, I have been reading La Presse and Le Devoir on the weekend for some time, beside the Ici and Voir on thursdays, until the day i went really bored because i didn’t recognized myself in these newspapers.

From there, i decided to have a look on the other side. What are english speaking people reading? I took 5 bucks and bought weekend issues of The Gazette, The National Post and grabbed the Mirror, and i think this was such a great thing.

I found much more to read about in these in one weekend then in the french newspapers in a month. Here are some topics covered this last weekend, exactly what i was looking for in french newspapers but never found:

- In The Gazette pop culture section, ‘Shouldn’t all music be emotionnal?’, about the roots of Emo music
- ‘Engage your right brain at work’, about creativity at work
- G3, a tech/computer/internet/games related section section

In the National Post:
- Mireille Siclcoff’s music article
- cover story about illustrator Virginai Johnson
- ‘soul matters’ page, about alternative medecines and spirituality in everyday life.

The Mirror last issues had articles about internet radio and some other cool stuff as an article about the pavilion projetcs.

For all this, I definitly prefer english written newspapers. I can relate easily to the topics they choose to cover. Somehow, i feel they are more open minded, with a strong implication in popular culture and trends.

I will still check out on newstands everynow and then to check our newspapers, but for right now, i think i’v found what i was looking for.

JOB TIP #515: NEVER THREATEN TO EAT YOUR CO-WORKERS

I just went out for breakfast with a bunch of books to read, one of them being “Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers, best of blogs“.

The book is laying my bedside table since a week now. Everytime i see the cover i keep asking myself why the hell is it called that way?

The answer is right here, comming from a blog entry with the same title.

I had a good laugh reading this entry, it is absolutely hilarious.

So, if you want to have a good laugh too, go on and read it. To laugh even more, just get the book. I think its worth it.

Grow

I have received today a bunch of books i’ve ordered lately. The second book by Lynne Franks, Grow, has finally arrived.

The book looks gorgeous, as the previous one, The Seed Handbook. The dimensions are the same, and it is illustrated by the same previous illustrator.

I went trough the Seed Handbook many times, since i now use it as a tool, a map remembering me what are my goals, my true wishes about what i want to do of this life. In difficult moments, and confusing ones like i have been into lately, it was a relief to remind myself about who i am and what i want. I have read this book after The artist’s way, and i must say it was the best following for julia cameron’s book.

Its already late and i have to get up tomorrow, but i will browse trough the book before going to sleep and should write a review sometimes.

The Faber Companion to 20th-century Popular Music

Geeeezzzz, i just bought a nice copy of The Faber Companion to 20th-century Popular Music at the chapters indigo store on st-catherine street. C’est dan qui va être jaloux…

Blogging-Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content

By Biz Stone

I found this book quite interesting and as an avid blogger, I thought I knew everything about weblogs, but I still had a lot to learn about the blogging revolution.

When i first saw that half of the book was for beginners, i thought that this book might not be the best buy for me, but finally I got caught into it and learned a lot – from the starting chapters for beginners until the more advanced options of the last chapters.

The book gives a really good overview for starters (the invention of the www, blogging history, getting to know blogging providers, simple html guide for bloggers) and slowly get into more advanced topics such as generating income from your blog, design and typography advices, archiving options, group and corporate blogging, knowledge management, adding dynamic features, tips to increase traffic, syndicating your blog (something which I never really cared for until now, but which I found really interesting), and interviews with some well known people from the blogosphere. All this content is supported with 12 pages of useful web links all listed in the appendix. Everything is written in a casual and easy to understand approach (not the too often so-serious way, with techy terms that only top nerds can understand).

So far, I found this book to be a really good buy for beginners and intermediate
blog users.

And now, you might wonder why someone like me is so interested in blogs. This was also a mystery to me at the start, but I quickly understood that what fascinated me with the blog phenomena is the power of self expression for everyone – like you and me – which is brought to us with an amazing potential for expansion. I think writing is a powerful way of learning about yourself, and I truly believe that as long as people will write and express themselves freely, everything might just get better for them. As well as reading from other people’s points of view and confidences, we might finally realize that we are all the same, and at the same time all so different, like snowflakes. Blogs are more than simple publishing, they are alive. They take the character of the person who publish it and that makes the web not only the biggest knowledge base we had yet, but it gives it a soul.

I think weblogs expands everyone’s horizon and we are led to a phenomenal open mindedness, which is really needed these days. Who knows, blogging might be the next religion? (or the next addiction in my case

Some websites of interest:
* Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content
* Companion website of this book
* Biz Stone, Personal weblog of the author
* Give Quick Use your affiliate program to send money to non profit organization, what a great idea…

Some books of interest (and probably my next readings):
* Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web
* The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog
* Linked: The New Science of Networks

Power thought cards

No, i didn’t invented them… they already exist and they are wonderfull! I have them on my desk since a year now, so each day i have one card facing my workplace. I also use them as bookmark (which is quite effective since i am reading at least 4 books at the same time).

Each card is really nicely illustrated by the illustrators from Lila Rogers studio with on one side of the card a powerfull affirmation, following a little explanation at the back.

I wish i could have made them, they are such a great source of support and inspiration!

Power Thought Cards