The Lords of Strategy by Walter Kiechel

It takes some guts to subtitle a business book “The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World.” Even for a genre whose grand overstatements are only rivaled by the diet-books aisle, that is an ambitious tagline. The Lords of Strategy lives up to that subtitle and then some.  It is a grand, sweeping saga that tells the story of how the ill-defined function known as “corporate strategy” emerged in the 60s, systematically took over  boardrooms and MBA classrooms, and altered the business landscape forever. Even though we are only 4 months into 2010, it is pretty likely this is going to be the best business book of the year for me. If you are considering, currently in, or recently graduated from, an MBA program, you really must read this book. If this book had been written 10 years ago, it would have saved me a good deal of trouble making my own career decisions.

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Be Slightly Evil

It’s time for yet another Ribbonfarm update. The big news, since the last update, is that I’ve incorporated Ribbonfarm as a small, slightly evil corporation, and started figuring out how exactly to take you guys for everything you’ve got.  Anyway, here goes. Lots of items to cover:

  1. The “Be Slightly Evil” Email List and Corporate Value
  2. Ribbonfarm Inc., Q1 report, including spin-offs, layoffs and the like
  3. Status of the Tempo book project
  4. Roundup of Articles

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The Gervais Principle III: The Curse of Development

In the first two parts of this series, we talked about the archetypes that inhabit organizations (Sociopaths, Losers, Clueless), what they do (the Gervais Principle) and how (the four languages). In this part, we’ll use a somewhat unorthodox take on the idea of arrested development to explain why the three groups behave as they do, and use that to predict the outcomes of individual interpersonal interactions.

Series Home | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | ebook

 

For those who came in late: read Part I and Part II first, to avoid serious misunderstandings.

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Four-Hour Workweek or Executricks?

My latest post on the trailmeme blog, Four-Hour Workweek or Executricks? should be of interest to ribbonfarm readers.

There are two major views of the brave new world of work that is being created by social media tools. The first is the free agent dream of quitting the cubicle, striking out on your own, and settling into a comfortable, undemanding and lucrative niche by 40. Tim Ferriss’  4-Hour Work Week is the how-to bible of this gang. This is the gang that believes in overt lifestyle design, mini-retirements, a public “personal brand” and the like. The lesser-known dream is an under-the-radar version best described in Stanley Bing’s Executricks. This looks very similar, but actually sounds more deliciously subversive: using the exact same tools to “retire at work,” develop an under-the-radar personal brand, and achieve covert lifestyle design…Which view is smarter? Which view do you subscribe to? Let me frame the decision for you; it is subtler than you think.

Read the full post

I am planning to move my more tech-based/topical/practical “future of work” writing to the Trailmeme blog, leaving the more conceptual stuff here. Kind of a relief, since I like talking about the relationship between technology and work/life styles at a practical level, but have felt, of late, that that stuff doesn’t quite fit with the more philosophical ribbonfarm mode. So if you like that kind of stuff, you may want to subscribe to the trailmeme blog as well.

Against the Gods by Peter Bernstein

In the last few months, I read two books about the history of finance: Against the Gods by Peter Bernstein and The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson (there is a very watchable DVD version, as well).  My first thought, when I decided to read up on finance and money, was to dive into the deep end with one of the subprime mortgage crisis books. But I found that there were so many, each claiming to know the reason for the  meltdown, that I decided to table that effort. I decided to start, instead, with a couple of broader-perspective historical books. These choices, I have to admit, were a matter of laziness and convenience rather than careful and deliberate selection. Still they did the trick. Though they were somewhat random starting points, both books are pretty good, and they got me thinking about money in productive and stimulating ways. Let’s tackle the first one,  Against the Gods.

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An Elephant, Some Batteries and Julianne Moore

Some weeks, my brain is so fried that I can’t think, let alone write. This is one of those weeks. So I thought I’d share a few pencil drawings I made several years ago. Let’s start with an elephant:

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Amy Lin and the Ancient Eye

Last weekend, I went to see Amy Lin’s new show, Kinetics, at the Addison-Ripley gallery in DC (the show runs till April 24;  go). Since I last wrote about her, she has started exploring patterns that go beyond her trademark dots. Swirls, lines and other patterns are starting to appear. Amy’s art  represents the death of both art and science as simple-minded categories, and the rediscovery of a much older way of seeing the world, which I’ll call the Ancient Eye. Yes, she nominally functions in the social skin of a modern “artist,” and is also a chemical engineer by day, but really, her art represents a way of seeing the world that is more basic than either “artistic” or “scientific” ways of seeing.  Take this piece from the Kinetics collection for instance, my favorite, titled Cellular.

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The Turpentine Effect

Picasso once noted that “when art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.” When you practice a craft you become skilled and knowledgeable in two areas: the stuff the craft produces, and the processes used to create it. And the second kind of expertise accumulates much faster. I call this the turpentine effect. Under normal circumstances, the turpentine effect only has minor consequences. At best, you become a more thoughtful practitioner of your craft, and at worst, you procrastinate a little, shopping for turpentine rather than painting. But there are trades where tool-making and tool-use involve exactly the same skills, which has interesting consequences. Programming, teaching, writing and mechanical engineering are all such trades.

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Ribbonfarm Facebook page, Twitter Feed, Posterous

Some long overdue social media housekeeping matters. Ribbonfarm now has a facebook page, dedicated Twitter feed and (this last is a rerun news item) a pretty active “Ribbonfarm Hopper” blog on Posterous containing raw material that eventually percolates into my original pieces here. Hook into any or all of these channels. Some details for those who are interested and/or want to know why connecting might be worthwhile.

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Linchpin by Seth Godin, and 8 Other Short Book Reviews

There are two kinds of books that I find valuable, but don’t review. Books about which I have too little to say and books about which I have too much to say. One reason I don’t review them is that with with the first kind of book, I often extract value and dump the book halfway. With the second kind, I read each book so closely and carefully, and over such a long period of time, that by the time I am done, it is too entangled with my own thinking to write about objectively. Still, I thought it would be interesting to attempt a round-up of recent reading in these two categories. These won’t be getting full-length reviews.

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