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You are here: Home / 2010 / Archives for November 2010

Archives for November 2010

Beware the Undoable Job

November 30, 2010 by Matt Perman

Drucker:

“[The effective executive is] forever on guard against the ‘impossible’ job, the job that simply is not for normal human beings.

Such jobs are common. They usually look exceedingly logical on paper. But they cannot be filled. One man of proven performance capacity after the other is tried — and none does well. Six months or a year later, the job has defeated them.

Almost always such a job was first created to accomodate an unusual man tailored to his idiosyncrasies. It usually calls for a mixture of temperaments that is rarely found in one person. Individuals can acquire very divergent kinds of knowledge and highly disparate skills. But they cannot change their temperaments. A job that calls for disparate temperaments becomes an “undoable” job, a man-killer.

The rule is simple: Any job that has defeated two or three men in succession, even though each had performed well in his previous assignments, must be assumed unfit for human beings. It must be redesigned.

(From The Effective Executive)

Filed Under: Job Design

Seven Principles for Building a Great Social Product

November 30, 2010 by Matt Perman

From TechCrunch.

They are:

  1. Design your product to matter in a world of infinite supply
  2. Be the best in the world at one thing
  3. Seek out uniqueness
  4. Focus on your most important interaction until you have it right.
  5. Choose your words carefully
  6. Create a party, not a museum
  7. Develop relationships, not features

Filed Under: Design

Price Check by Amazon

November 29, 2010 by Matt Perman

Amazon’s Price Check looks like a helpful app if you still have some Christmas shopping to do — as well as just being useful in general.

Here’s the first part of the description:

Ever wondered if you were getting the best price on a product when you were out shopping? With Price Check by Amazon, you can use your iPhone to instantly compare prices with Amazon.com and its merchants while on-the-go. Price Check enables you to search Amazon products quickly using barcode, picture, voice, and text search. All prices are in US Dollars and search the Amazon US catalog. Compatible with iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4 devices with auto-focus cameras and iOS 4 or greater.

Price Check by Amazon provides access to Amazon.com product descriptions and customer reviews to guide you in making informed purchase decisions. When you find a low price while using the app, simply log into your Amazon account to complete a secure purchase. Price Check by Amazon supports 1-Click check-out and Prime memberships.

Filed Under: Productivity Tools

How to Revise an Email so People will Read It

November 29, 2010 by Matt Perman

From Harvard Business Review.

Filed Under: Email

The Human Brain Has More Switches Than All the Computers on Earth

November 28, 2010 by Matt Perman

This was an interesting article at CNET. Here’s the first part:

The human brain is truly awesome.

A typical, healthy one houses some 200 billion nerve cells, which are connected to one another via hundreds of trillions of synapses. Each synapse functions like a microprocessor, and tens of thousands of them can connect a single neuron to other nerve cells. In the cerebral cortex alone, there are roughly 125 trillion synapses, which is about how many stars fill 1,500 Milky Way galaxies.

(HT: Challies)

Filed Under: Science

Give the Gift of Safe Water

November 26, 2010 by Matt Perman

Carlos Whittaker has blogged about an initiative of Water Missions International to provide clean water to as many of their remaining communities as they can through text donations of $10.

Water Missions International is an engineering relief and development Christian nonprofit that seeks to provide sustainable and safe water solutions to people in 40 developing countries and disaster victims worldwide. They currently have 125+ communities waiting for funding to get safe water, with the communities averaging around 2500 people. This initiative is focused on providing the funding for as many of those communities as possible.

Filed Under: Clean Water

A Right Understanding of Strengths

November 24, 2010 by Matt Perman

This is from an Amazon review of Marcus Buckingham’s DVD resource, The Truth About You. It describes what a strength actually is very well:

Buckingham’s advice to success is simple: Work on your strengths. But it is his definition of “strength” that makes a world of difference.

To him, strength is not something you’re good at but something that excites you, something that you look forward to, something that makes you strong. The idea of focusing on how it feels when we’re doing something rather than on how well we perform it has changed the way I look at my life and my work for the better. Now I don’t feel embarrassed that I’m not good at math or regretful that I did not follow my teacher’s advice (you’re good at writing; therefore, you should be a lawyer). Instead, I give myself permission to concentrate on using what I’m good at in ways that make me feel accomplished and fulfilled. That does not necessarily mean it will translate into buckets and buckets of money. However, it sure beats waking up every morning to go to a job you do well but dread and hate.

Related to this is my post from a few months ago, “Your Weaknesses Are Not What You Are Bad At.”

For those seeking to get a better picture of their vocational direction (and I mean first of all in your current job, rather than finding a different job), I would recommend Buckingham’s DVD set.

The most helpful thing about it is actually this little book that comes with it in which you record, over the course of a week, the things that weakened you and the things that strengthened you. By reviewing going through this exercise and then reviewing your entries you can get a better idea of your strengths and weaknesses (and remember: your weaknesses are not necessarily what you are bad at; they are what drain you).

If you are interested in a more in-depth treatment of strengths and how to get a better picture of what your own strengths are, I would also recommend Buckingham’s book Go Put Your Strengths to Work.

Filed Under: Strengths

iOS 4.2 Now Available (Since Monday)

November 24, 2010 by Matt Perman

I’m a bit late here, but just in case you haven’t heard (or updated) yet, iOS 4.2 is now available for the iPad (and iPhone).

There are more than 100 new features, but in my view just having the ability to organize your apps in folders makes the iPad immensely more useful.

Filed Under: Technology

Reinke on Reading

November 24, 2010 by Matt Perman

Last year, Tony Reinke did a helpful series on reading. For those who missed it, here it is:

Tip 1: Capturing Reading Time
Tip 2: Read with a Pen in Hand
Tip 3: Read With Purpose in Mind

Also, here is a helpful post by Tim Challies: Random Thoughts on Reading.

Filed Under: Reading

27 Things to Do Before a Conference

November 23, 2010 by Matt Perman

Some tips from Chris Brogan.

Filed Under: Networking

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About

What’s Best Next exists to help you achieve greater impact with your time and energy — and in a gospel-centered way.

We help you do work that changes the world. We believe this is possible when you reflect the gospel in your work. So here you’ll find resources and training to help you lead, create, and get things done. To do work that matters, and do it better — for the glory of God and flourishing of society.

We call it gospel-driven productivity, and it’s the path to finding the deepest possible meaning in your work and the path to greatest effectiveness.

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About Matt Perman

Matt Perman started What’s Best Next in 2008 as a blog on God-centered productivity. It has now become an organization dedicated to helping you do work that matters.

Matt is the author of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done and a frequent speaker on leadership and productivity from a gospel-driven perspective. He has led the website teams at Desiring God and Made to Flourish, and is now director of career development at The King’s College NYC. He lives in Manhattan.

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