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American Lion

by Porchlight
In recent days, months even, America has gotten the New Hope via a certain new political leader. But what has come to my attention - slowly at first - seems incredibly relevant and worth mentioning. About a month ago, right after the holiday season, I saw a documentary about Andrew Jackson.
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Two from The 100

by Porchlight
Can't wait another day for The 100 Best Business Books of All Time? The following essay compares two of the books contained therein that couldn't be more different upon first inspection. Sloan's My Years With General Motors is a massive undertaking, containing excruciating details spanning many decades that dissect and explain almost every move he made with the company, while Watson's A Business and Its Beliefs is a quick and inspirational read.
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Friedman v. Bhid - refereed by Heskett

by Porchlight
Jim Heskett, Harvard Professor and coauthor of the recently released (and heftily titled) Ownership Quotient: Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work for Unbeatable Competitive Advantage , posted a brief review of Amar Bhidé's Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World at Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge site yesterday. Bhidé takes a contrarian view to Thomas Friedman's World is Flat pronouncement. Summing up the book and its argument, Heskett asks: If one agrees with these hypotheses, what does this mean for investments in basic science on the part of any government?
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Two "How" career/life books that deserve a shout out

by Porchlight
There are two career/life-related books on my desk this morning: How to Be Useful: A Beginner's Guide to Not Hating Work by Megan Hustad and The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want (now out in paperback) by Sonja Lyubomirsky. How to Be Useful is an antidote to the cynicism and naivete that Hustad believes have seeped into the veins of younger generations of workers, who have developed an attitude of fundamental resistance to all things "corporate" and "ambitious. " She explains that the book "aims to be a corrective to this strange, counterproductive loop of naivete and cynicism.
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