Note to Self… Bangkok, On the Luck of Seven, In Good Company, Seed, and Swag

March 3, 2008

John Berns put together a BarCamp in Bangkok. Now he’s musing on a coworking space or a Jelly in Bangkok. His post captures the vision and the spirit of coworking with an honest candor that makes me recall my first introduction to the idea. I sent him an e-mail in hope of watching this [...]

Business Needs Fewer of These People…

February 28, 2008

Position

Manager
Job Description

Don’t bother to learn anything about what your employees do or how it’s done, even at a superficial level. But, tell them what to do and when to do it. Ceaselessly and needlessly cross-examine them about minutia you don’t understand in order to see if they slip up when they tell you why [...]

Have Spear, Will Travel

February 27, 2008

The story of human evolution is a story of innovation. Fire. Organized hunting. Social organization. Language. Domestication of plants and animals. Maritime Revolution. Industrial Revolution. Information Revolution, etc. In short, technology, from paleolithic to neolithic to cryptolithic technologies–i.e. man-made solutions to problems–makes the world go around. Technology has always driven human evolution [...]

Shut Up and Have Fun!

February 22, 2008

A recent article in Utne Reader (Are We Having Fun Yet?) chronicles the growth of the consultancy industry growing up around… fun! Books with such titles as 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work and 301 More Ways to Have Fun at Work, extol the virtues of silliness and campy that promise to make [...]

From the Field… Two Weeks Notice

February 22, 2008

one more drop of rain in advance of the storm…
(props to @dydimustk for perm)

Last Call

February 21, 2008

Drink Up
How many of you have ever heard of Devon Energy? Devon is a relatively modest ‘independent’ oil producer based in Oklahoma City, with operations in the Gulf of Mexico, the Plains states, and the Southwest. Why Devon?
In today’s Wall Street Journal , Devon is mentioned in passing in an interesting piece in the [...]

“People will become more productive…”

February 18, 2008

Bart Mroz at Indy Hall pointed me at this post by Mike Neiss on TomPeters.com titled Ambition and Productivity.
The Associated Press recently reported that “Worker productivity… slowed sharply in the final three months of the year while wage pressures increased.” Bad news for business, right…?
Yes, but there’s a solution. Give your employees a reason [...]

Your Name Here, LLC

February 14, 2008

Note: Hi, I’m Tony. I’m championing coworking in NYC and met The Butcher & Bandit when they were in town last week. I hope to add my perspective and experiences to the mix here and, with any luck, contribute something that’s insightful and enjoyable. Feel free to contact me!
In his Coworking as a Catalyst post, [...]

Coworking as Catalyst

February 13, 2008

Coworking is the most subversive influence in cubeland today. Even the Internet itself is less significant because the Internet is ultimately just a communication channel that is susceptible to filtering on its way into the office, while coworking is about taking the workers out of the office. Just try to filter that interface…
I [...]

Spreadin’ the Jelly

February 12, 2008

Over the past half year, something most interesting has been happening.  Independent-minded and independent-working professionals, largely GenXers and Millennials, have cohered in distributed communities literally around the world.  NYC, Austin, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Diego, London, Perth, and…Birmingham?  England, right?  No, not England, Birmingham, Alabama, USA, heart of dixie and all that.  A place that has [...]