Blog
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Blog / News & Opinion
The Best Books of 2012, Amazon Edition
By Porchlight
Amazon's editors have come up with another fine list of books this year. Their choices in the Business and Investing category are: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg, Random House Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Random House The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick Lencioni, Jossey-Bass Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll, The Penguin Press Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City by Brad Feld, John Wiley & Sons How Much is Enough? : Money and the Good Life by Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere by Vijay Govindarajan, Chris Trimble and Indra K.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
The Best Books of 2012, strategy + business Edition
By Porchlight
The strategy + business best of business books list is always one of our favorites of the year—one we always look forward to—and this year's does not disappoint. The strength of the list is in it's breadth and flexibility. The categories always change slightly to reflect the important topics of the year, and they choose experts on those topics to pick the best books published in those categories.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Author Pow Wow in Austin, TX
By Porchlight
In under two months, on January 13-15, the 800-CEO-READ Author Pow Wow will be taking place again in Austin, TX. Each year, we gather a small group of people from the publishing industry and writers to discuss the ins and outs of the business of writing business books. Most people are surprised to learn that the entire process is not how they thought.
Categories: news-opinion, publishing-industry
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Blog / News & Opinion
The Best Books of 2012, A Season of Lists
By Porchlight
The season of lists is upon us. The first ornament up on the tree was Steve Coll's Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power, published by The Penguin Press, which took home the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year earlier this month. And there was another large nonfiction title related to economics—Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Into the Storm
By Sally Haldorson
Over the course of a long race, sailors will inevitably encounter setbacks. In an instant, a boat can go from leading the fleet to lagging behind. A major reversal can easily discourage the crew and, left unchecked, can deplete the crew's energy.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
ChangeThis: Issue 100
By Porchlight
In thinking of what to do for the 100th issue of ChangeThis, a lot of ideas were conjured up. But, in the end, we decided the most important thing we could do is to keep on doing the work we've been doing since Seth Godin turned the site over to us in the summer of 2005—act as a vehicle for moving ideas in service of authors and our audience. We did do a few special things with the issue, though.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / ChangeThis
We Are All Artists Now
By Porchlight
"This isn’t a manifesto for other people. This is a manifesto for you. It’s a manifesto for anyone who has been overlooked or brainwashed or seduced into being invisible."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Death Blues: The Celebration and Opportunity of Each Moment
By Porchlight
"How much time is left. Do we know. Does our plan know. What happens when we thoroughly hold and understand that our lives are finite. How does this understanding of our end shape our present. And how do we become more 'present. ' Because each moment is an opportunity and a decision. We all have dreams for the future: Making a million dollars, getting a new car, finishing school, getting a promotion, and achieving any number of goals, while potentially important, might not be possible in this instant. But considering an overdue apology, sending a positive email to someone, calling a family member, talking to a co-worker about a project idea, connecting in any way with someone in order to make something good happen can be done right now. And consider the affect those immediate actions might have on the longer-term goals listed previously. Many big events in our lives are the results of a series of immediate but important smaller events that take place before them. Immediate positive actions are the structural building blocks for what's to come.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Paradox of Skill: Why Greater Skill Leads to More Luck
By Michael J. Mauboussin
"Okay, you have gotten the memo on improving skill: 10,000 hours, hard work, deliberate practice, grit, and attentive teacher. We've all heard it. You also recognize that in many of life's activities, the results you achieve combine skill and luck. No debate there. Now, what if I told you that in many cases improving skill leads to results that rely more on luck? That's right. Greater skill doesn't decrease the dependence on luck, it increases it. If you have an interest in sports, business, or investing, this lesson is for you."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Snowflake Moment: Presenting the Future Today
By Porchlight
"The snowflake moment we idolize, that final and glorious crystalline state which Bentley captured on black velvet time and time again, does provide justification for everything else. It is the end, and so must mean something, must make a bold statement about the substance and quality of our existence. But the snowflake moment is just one of a countless million moments, an isolated still shot of an existence that is predominantly defined by its very motion. We are what we do every day. Nothing more. Scientists have proved the value of diversity in so many different ways that they almost seem to disprove the fundamental concept. Darwin thought the variety among finches on Galapagos derived from absolute necessity: adapt or die. And yet other scientists have found that diversity among species is greatest in times of relative ease and abundance: hard times keep the genetic nose to the grindstone, but when survival is easily achieved DNA begins to flex and bend. Again, the discrepancy seems insurmountable, and this seems true for presentation styles, too: some branch out as a last-ditch effort when everything else has gone wrong; others push the envelope of convention at the beginning of each day.
Categories: changethis
