Job Therapy with Tessa West: How to Repair Your Relationship With Your Job or How to Change Careers
July 25, 2024
An Excerpt from The Power of Instinct
July 25, 2024
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
'Getting Things Done with Others': An Interview with David Allen and Edward Lamont
May 28, 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 / News & Opinion
The Good Ol' Summertime
By Porchlight
This is just a little reminder for me to tell you to take some time for yourself this summer. Everyone gets caught up in everyday living and we worry about everything all the time. This summer, promise to do something 'cool' for you.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
BusinessWeek reviews A Splendid Exchange
By Porchlight
I like how BusinessWeek kicks off a book review, with: The Good, The Bad, and The Bottom Line. Sometimes I wait until after I've read the review to look at this section, just because I like to see if it succinctly sums up the praises and criticisms raised in the review. Here's how this week's review of A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World by William J.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
A reply to Seth from a publisher: "No. We don't own the trees."
By Porchlight
Seth recently critiqued newspapers and book publishers' focus on paper as the vehicle to spread information. If you think your job is to keep the printers busy, then you see the world differently. You focus on per issue sales, you worry about people sharing a paper (!
Categories: news-opinion, publishing-industry
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Blog / Staff Picks
Superclass
Book Review by Porchlight
A company recently ordered a bunch of copies of a book called Superclass the other day and I had to look into getting them some copies. Boy, did it sound interesting once I did some research! So interesting in fact that I had to get a copy for myself.
Categories: staff-picks
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Blog / Jack Covert Selects
Nudge
By Porchlight
Nudge was one of April's Jack Covert Selects, but it appears Jack and the rest of us here at 8cr are not the only fans. Mr. Tom Peters himself has posted a rave review on his blog.
Categories: jack-covert-selects
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Blog / News & Opinion
Buying In, In the Press
By Porchlight
Since posting links to an excerpt and review of Rob Walker's book Buying In on Monday, two more reviews have come to my attention--both more in depth than the first and both terrific. One is from Salon, and was published on Tuesday, so you can understand why it wasn't included in the original post. The review from TIME Magazine?
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Free Teleconversation with Dan Pink Today
By Porchlight
At 9am PST today (Friday), Dan Pink is hosting a *free* teleconversation with readers. He's taking questions and registrations. Dan's the author of the of A Whole New Mind and more recently, the first manga business book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
International Best Sellers for May
By Porchlight
Here's what people have been reading across the globe: # 1 - Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial I. Q. - by Robert T.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Invisible Badge: Moving Past Conspicuous Consumption
By Rob Walker
Thorstein Veblen introduced the idea of "conspicuous consumption" in The Theory of the Leisure Class, in 1899. And it's still being recycled today. Veblen gave examples like the man who parades down Main Street in "stainless" linen, with a superfluous walking stick. These objects supposedly told a story—"evidence of leisure"— to an audience of strangers. Today's consumer is supposed to be a little more sophisticated than that. So it's puzzling how many marketers still talk about how a certain beer or sneaker or handbag functions as a so-called "badge. " Even hybrid cars are said to be eco-status markers that show "conspicuous concern" about the environment. More scholarly observers call this "signaling. " But in the end it's all repackaged Veblen: The idea is that we buy stuff mostly to impress other people. Perhaps this was true in the past. But the time has come to retire the conspicuous consumption idea. Observers of consumer culture (marketers, to name an example) need to understand that as a concept, it's inadequate.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track
By Porchlight
Education should be a lifelong enterprise, a process enhanced by an environment that supports to the greatest extent possible the attempt of people to "find themselves" throughout their lives. For too long, we have educated people for a world that no longer exists, extinguishing their creativity and instilling values antithetical to those of a free, 21st century democracy. The principal objective of education as currently provided is to ensure the maintenance and preservation of the status quo—to produce members of society who will not want to challenge any fundamental aspects of the way things are. Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching, there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught. Being taught is, to a very large extent, boring and much of its content is seen as irrelevant. It is the teacher, not the student, who learns most in a traditional classroom.
Categories: changethis