Love Is My Favorite Flavor: A Midwestern Dining Critic Tells All
July 12, 2024
The Air They Breathe: A Pediatrician on the Frontlines of Climate Change
June 27, 2024
An Excerpt from When We Are Seen
June 05, 2024
'Getting Things Done with Others': An Interview with David Allen and Edward Lamont
May 28, 2024
Upcoming Author Interview: Tessa West — July 24, 2024
March 27, 2024
The 2023 Porchlight Business Book Awards
November 30, 2023
Promo Video: Our Author Interview Series
July 31, 2023
Blog
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - The Power of Habit
By Porchlight
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business by Charles Duhigg, Random House, 400 Pages, $28. 00, Hardcover, March 2012, ISBN 9781400069286 We all have habits. Some are good, like brushing our teeth, and others are generally classified as bad, such as smoking, drinking to excess, or overeating.
Categories: jack-covert-selects
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - American Icon
By Porchlight
American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company by Bryce G. Hoffman, Crown Business, 432 Pages, $26. 00, Hardcover, March 2012, ISBN 9780307886057 One of my favorite books of 2011 was Once Upon a Car by Bill Vlasic.
Categories: jack-covert-selects
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Jack Covert Selects - The Idea Factory
By Porchlight
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner, The Penguin Press, 432 pages, $29. 95, Hardcover, March 2012, ISBN 9781594203282 One of the most important institutions of the 20th century was Bell Labs, created by AT&T and Western Electric in 1925 to design and research equipment for Bell Telephone. The Idea Factory is the story of that unique organization and its creation of some of the most important inventions of the past century—such as lasers, transistors, and telephone switching systems—patented by engineers who went on the win seven Nobel Prizes.
Categories: jack-covert-selects
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Blog / News & Opinion
Being Wrong Can Be So Right
By Sally Haldorson
One of my favorite books from last year was Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz. We gave away 20 copies of the book to share the wealth, and about it I wrote: Can a doggedly-researched book that relays the historical lineage of error, attempts to uncover the truth beneath truth, and even discusses something as impenetrable as "The Optimistic Meta-Induction from the History of Everything," be charming, accessible and eminently readable? Apparently so because Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz is just that.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Repeatability
By Sally Haldorson
We've spent a lot of time with Chris Zook. Not the man himself, but his work. When we were prepping the material for The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, Jack and Todd were still unsure of what the exact construction of the book would look like, but we were sure of one thing: Chris Zook had to be included in the book.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
168 Hours and All the Money in the World
By Porchlight
Robert Benchley’s Law of Distinction states that “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t. ” If that statement made any logical sense, I would count myself among the latter. Yet I do think it's a rare mind that is both expansive and practical at the same time, and that is what makes Laura Vanderkam so special.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
The Elephant in the Room
By Porchlight
For some, relationships are easy to talk about. For others, that discussion is avoided, either out of fear, ego, or the perception that it's just not a topic to verbalize. So, even talking about them can be complicated, and being active within them, even more so.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / Staff Picks
The New Theseus and Novelty Minotaur
Book Review by Porchlight
Theseus was always in search of his next adventure, choosing to travel overland to meet his father in Athens so he could clear the road of its notorious monsters and villains (such as Procrustes, who business book readers may recognize from Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Bed of Procrustes) rather than taking the safer sea route suggested by his grandfather. And when he learned that Athens was sending seven young men and seven women in war tribute each year to be devoured by the Minotaur—the half-bull, half man pet monster of the cruel King Minos of Crete—he decided he would be one of the fourteen to go, that he would try to rid the world of yet another monster. Winifred Gallagher's recently released New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change, explains the tendencies each of us has (or lacks) for novelty and new experiences—or neophilia—and what those tendencies mean for each of us and our collective future.
Categories: staff-picks
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Blog / News & Opinion
To Forgive Design
By Porchlight
As consumers, we love products that look nice and are easy to use. As humans, we enjoy created environments that enhance our quality of life while offering an interesting visualization to the natural world. But sometimes, our phones don't work properly, or our cars break down.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
ChangeThis: Issue 91
By Porchlight
How to Change Medicine by Eric Topol, M. D. “New tools in medicine can reboot the future of health care, making it more precise, consumer-driven, and truly preventive.
Categories: news-opinion