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- June 9, 2006
Scanner, or ADD?
June 9, 2006Read moreWhen clearing out my RSS reading list, came across this post on Talent Develop on Scanners:
- “I can never stick to anything.”
- “I know I should focus on one thing, but which one?”
- “I lose interest in things I thought would interest me forever.”
- “I keep going off on another tangent.”
- “I get bored as soon as I know how to do something.”
- “I can’t stand to do anything twice.”
- “I keep changing my mind about what I want to do and end up doing nothing.”
- “I work at low-paying jobs because there’s nothing I’m willing to commit to.”
- “I won’t choose a career path because it might be the wrong one.”
- “I think everyone’s put on this earth to do something; everyone but me, that is.”
- “I can’t pay attention unless I’m doing many things at once.”
- “I pull away from what I’m doing because I’m afraid I’ll miss something better.”
- “I’m too busy, but when I do find time I can’t remember what I wanted to do.”
- “I’ll never be an expert in anything. I feel like I’m always in a survey class.”
“If you’ve ever said these things to yourself, chances are good that you’re a Scanner, a very special kind of thinker. ” “Unlike those people who seem to find and be satisfied with one area of interest, you’re genetically wired to be interested in many things, and that’s exactly what you’ve been trying to do. ”
That sounds like me. The excerpt goes on to provide some insight into the problem of being expected to conform to the “one skill, one direction’ mindset that most people have. I myself have struggled with this in the definition of my own specialty, gravitating toward fields that have very broad problem spaces where being multi-interested in things pays off.
- June 9, 2006
Bucatini Alla Carbonara
June 9, 2006Read more
My sister found a recipe for an Italian pasta dish called Bucatini Alla Carbonara, and made it for us on Memorial Day. She told me she’d heard about the dish from one of her online buds, someone from Italy who loves this dish.
Here’s another view of it, nestled on top of a lot of kitchen clutter:
It’s nice to have Italian food that isn’t Spaghetti and Meatballs, Lasagna, or Veal Parmigiani. I am convinced that those food items are the equivalent of Chinese-American staples like Sweet and Sour Pork, General Tso’s Chicken, and Beef with Brocolli…sorta ethnic, but varying wildly in quality and completely lacking in authenticity.
I think the main problem with these foods is that people know how the dishes are supposed to look, which makes it easy to meet expectations through visual presentation alone. That doesn’t mean that the food is good. It’s often mushy, overcooked, oversalted, and lacking in distinct flavor. I think of most bad Italian food I’ve had as “red and noodly with sausage and green peppers”, bad chinese as “fried and sweetish-brown with celery and carrots”, bad mexican as “beany, cheesy, and crunchy”, and bad thai as “coconut and lemon grass in brown sauce”. At my favorite restaurants, the dishes have to transcend these stereotypes for me to feel happy. There are a couple kinds of food that I still don’t really have a good feel for and enjoy most of the time: korean and indian; I am still developing my palate, I guess.
Oh, the Bucatini Alla Carbonara was excellent…good job, sis! You can make it for me anytime :-D
- June 9, 2006
Future Reruns
June 9, 2006Read moreI have amassed waaaay too many unpublished article drafts. In the spirit of starting up GTD, I have been going through them to deciding which ones are “actionable” and which will be nuked.
On the other hand, the list itself is pretty interesting, a monument to half-baked distraction. What usually happens is I write half the of the article, and then I realize I don’t really have a point. While that hasn’t stopped me from hitting the publish button before, for whatever reason these drafts didn’t have enough of a personal hook to get finished.
- June 8, 2006
Two neat SXSW06 Podcasts
June 8, 2006Read moreRecently posted at the SXSW06 Podcast site: Cluetrain: Seven Years Later, which I found very illuminating regarding thoughts on “marketing conversations” and thoughts on what it means to be that kind of company. The speakers were also very articulate. Sink or Swim: The Five Most Important Startup Decisions was another good one, though I attended it primarily to see what Joel Spolsky was like in person. He is also an articulate speaker, as one might expect. The surprise discovery was that Cabel Sasser, one of the co-founders of Panic, is an incredibly likable and engaging speaker. Very real, self-deprecating, and quick; watching Cabel and Joel banter informally was very enjoyable.
- June 8, 2006
Promoting Your Agenda
June 8, 2006Read moreI just got a phone call on my biz line, which I answered with great initial enthusiasm. It was “Kathy” or “Kaitlin” asking to speak with the “Lady of the House”. I informed here that there wasn’t one, so she asked to speak to someone else in charge of the household. At this point I asked, “Who are you?”, and she replied she was with The Dove Foundation and could she please speak with the lady of the house? I then asked with what she wanted, and she got a tad bit huffy and insisted she needed to speak with the lady of the house. I said, “Look, YOU are calling ME on my business line, and…” but didn’t get farther; she spoke over me, saying “I’m sorry, thank you for your time” and hung up before I finished. I actually can’t remember if she did apologize, because the tone of the voice conveyed the opposite intention, which was I’ve got other calls to make, you’re wasting my time >CLICK<
I started preparing an informational rant against The Dove Foundation, but along the way I had an insight about a new marketing strategy that could work for me. It’s not as awful as you might think.
