The Notio Guestroom is now open for reservations. Located in north-central New England, two hours north of Boston, five hours north of NYC, three hours south of Montreal. Private setting on a dirt road. 30 minutes from Hanover and the quaint home of Dartmouth College, known as the heart of liberalism in NH. On-site or […]
May 23, 2006
Pragmatic Technology Strategy
Yesterday Mark and I drove down to Andover MA to meet with Walden. We three are running a (pro-bono) session for a Coop consulting group next month on technology strategy. Because Kate wasn’t feeling well, we went to Panera for three hours. The place was hoppin’ with businesspeople! Above you see Walden coaching Mark on […]
May 20, 2006
The Principles Underlying Our System Are Actually Better
This post at TPM sums up my feelings on the US national security situation exactly: […] is just this dogmatic post-9/11 insistence on acting as if human history began suddenly in 1997 or something. The United States was able to face down such threats as the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany without indefinite detentions, widespread […]
May 18, 2006
One Possible Explanation for Obesity
I woke up this morning wondering why human muscle mass is such an attractive feature in our culture today. That is, why are fit people with defined muscles “more attractive” than couch potatoes. My mind leaped to the idea that this taps into a primitive part of our brain that says, “If times get tough, […]
May 17, 2006
I Feel Safer Now
A couple of monster military jets just flew over the house. Those puppies are loud and fast. By the time you get to the window they’re already cruising down the valley disappearing out of sight. Boys with toys. Practicing for the Big Day. Probably fun to do, in that all-powerful dominant I Am God way. […]
May 16, 2006
Gratuitous Name-Dropping
[Attention conservation notice: This post contains little of actual value.] I spoke with Jeffrey Zeldman today. (I just have to say it again—I spoke with Jeffrey Zeldman today!) A client is evaluating technical vendors. One of the prospects wrote a strong proposal, really kind of in-your-face for this small northern New England college, but she […]
May 11, 2006
I [Heart] My Clients
I have the best clients in the world. I just agreed to a large project for the summer that I had initially turned down (wherein I would participate but not lead) because the client wanted me to lead it so much they moved their deadline to fit my existing commitments. There are a lot of […]
May 10, 2006
Body Echos
Saw the chiropractor this morning. I’ve been visiting about every two weeks for about 18 months. We’ve been working on some structural issues, from sacrum to mid-back to neck. Some were related to my broken ribs a few years ago (pre-blog, but worth posting) for which I never did any rehabilitation other than take the […]
May 7, 2006
We Put On Gloves and Dug In
Lynne and I went for a walk down the road today. Ran into neighbor S., who, like Lynne, is a massage therapist. S: I went to a two-day cadaver workshop last month! L: Oh, excellent! S: There were about a dozen of us. There were four cadavers, two up, two down, cut wide open. We […]
May 5, 2006
Opening Space for Ourselves and Each Other
Chris Corrigan posts some (great) current thinking on the Four Practices of Open Space. I hope he and Michael actually do get a book written about their experiences. Spending three days with them was life-changing, in many subtle but persistent ways. One example: staying in touch with Ashley, and thus seeing posts like this.
May 5, 2006
Glory Be
It is really springtime here in New England. Last night the bard owls, the peepers, the moon, the stars. Slept with the windows open. This morning, streaming sunshine, activity in the woods, birds galore, happy cat. I sat on the deck for over an hour entraining. It would be a fantastico day to take off […]
May 4, 2006
Birdsong
All I know is something like a bird, within her sang It was cloudy this morning, and that bummed me out because yesterday was so difficult (probably due to precognition). I had a prospect meeting, so I dressed in costume. After the dentist I got a bagel and went to the office. Lots of calls […]
May 2, 2006
A Downside of Email Marketing [#000001 in a series]
I just got an email from Netflix that began: Netflix is proud to announce the opening of its new and improved Previously Viewed DVD store! Good idea, I thought. Sell off the low-traffic movies. So I clicked over to check out the new section. Looks just like Netflix, you browse, you search, you rate. Nice. […]
May 2, 2006
Listening To Yourself
Almost exactly a year ago, on April 21, 2005, a friend interviewed me for her oral history course. Yesterday I read the (nearly) complete transcript. Oh, the agaony of reading and hearing your actual words transcribed. No, no, I meant…. Plus: Wow – who knew I could be so self-absorbed? Well, some people know, but […]
May 1, 2006
Linkfest
Minor procrastination battle raging. Productive but difficult. Hence: * Ever wonder what it’s like to become an expert in the press? Ph.D. student Danah Boyd helps you out. “I talk to press every time i’m in my car, in the airport and walking around. I spend a good 15 hours a week addressing press right […]
April 29, 2006
My Brother Esau
The more my brother looks like me, the less I understand Spring: Transitions and decisions. Buds bursting and cool nights. Grass growing slowly now. New kinds of chores. Winter’s over, summer’s not here yet.
April 28, 2006
Idea No. 22
Some of my loyal readers are already subscribed to the Signals vs. Noise feed; to you I apologize for the repetition. Just skip ahead to the last three paragraphs now. For everyone else: Could you live like this? A slide show (NY Times) of commisioned pieces from the collection of Ohio art collector Andy Stillpass, […]
April 28, 2006
The Shangri-La Diet
Most interesting diet (fad?) in a long time. I first read about it at Aaron Swartz’s weblog, and he posted a followup today. This is where Roberts’s big insight comes — he argues that we use a Pavlovian sort of flavor-conditioning system to see whether food is scarce. If we eat foods frequently, we grow […]
April 25, 2006
From The Mailbag
The life of a consultant…. Notio: Were you out of town this weekend? A: Well…. that’s a pretty good story, actually. After waiting for a half hour to be picked up at the Asheville, NC airport for a Fri-Sun retreat I started to have anxiety about standing outside the wrong airport. Nope, that wasn’t the […]