brainmower

52 books for 2010

Inspired by this blog post about How to read a book a week in 2010 I've decided to take the challenge. I'll track my progress in this blog post. Duct Tape Marketing Review: Great book on building a marketing plan. Just like it says, very practical and effective. Marketing always has a certain pop psychology aspect. This book delves into that gray area only when necessary. Instead the book focuses on actionable steps for any sized business. I enjoyed this book very much. Rating: 4.5 o...

Good is better than Best

I am currently reading Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith. It's a good read, but there is a page and half that has had a major impact on me, showing me where I have a huge blindspot in business and how I stop my own progress.  This page and a half is possibly the most important material I've read in a book in several years (for me it applies directly). The author talks about the Fallacy of Planning in a business setting. He ranks plans in this order...

Cloud Computing and Competitive Advantages

There is a lot of buzz about Cloud Computing. Briefly (from wikipedia), Cloud computing refers to computing resources being accessed which are typically owned and operated by a third-party provider on a consolidated basis in Data Center locations. Examples of Cloud Computing include Google Apps, Apple's MobileMe and  Amazon's S3. A brief history of how we arrived at this point in computing history. A few decades ago all of the brains of a computer lived in huge mainframes. Terminals (a...

Wake up and smell the Starbucks

Wake up and smell the....Starbucks. Sounds odd huh? Well, it may not sound odd in a few years. Product placement is a small example of the marketization of our culture. In the book Is the American Dream Killing You? How the Markets Rule our Lives Paul Stiles explores how Capitalism and unabated Free Markets have destroyed the American Dream. The market is unrelenting, driving Americans into further spirals of debt, work and detachment. The book lays bare the issues created in a culture whe...