I have been slowly making my way through Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (one book among many). The cognitive bias being discussed at the moment is Fundamental Attribution Error (or Actor-Observer Bias, Correspondence Bias or Attribution Effect), in which humans tend to ascribe actions to some innate properties of the actor, rather than the context [...]
This venn diagram on How to be Happy in Business from Bud Caddell is making the rounds, and remember-worthy enough for me to post it here: Pair that with the other useful chart I like, Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix (or Urgent/Important Matrix)—this one from AwakeBlogger :
I go back and forth with my mom—a library media teacher—about information literacy: for me, the future of communications is not about authority, but authenticity. Below is a list of self-deceptions writers put into their writing from Writing to Be Read by Ken Macrorie (also author of Telling Writing) : No writer knows how often [...]
Three fortunes I received following pho: Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Commitment is the hinge upon which the door to success hangs. Everything serves to further.
I got to talking to one of my favorite coffee shop girls at my favorite coffee shop today. She’s 23 and just graduated from College and living with her younger sister, 21, and we were talking about differences in age. In my day job I spend a lot of time interacting with people in the [...]
Of all things, tonight in my Institute for Nonprofit Management and Leadership class we were talking about Online Fundraising. I got a little frustrated since (a) I couldn’t get a word in and (b) they were really making a muck of it. What I was hearing was a confusion of the indicators of successful online [...]
I like taking on the role of facilitator to help people realize their potential, whatever it might be. In a strategic planning class I audited last year, I found myself spending more time (and enjoying myself more) turning other people’s vague concepts into plans, than I did my own. Many of the AmeriCorps*VISTA members I [...]
This is more notes from last weekend’s Craigslist Foundation’s Nonprofit Bootcamp. Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx, gave the afternoon keynote (I think the afternoon speech of a conference should be called a plenary). She spoke from experience in designing socially and ecologically sustainable projects. I think she covered some good points in her [...]
Last weekend I was in NYC for the Craigslist Foundation’s Nonprofit Bootcamp. As a one-day conference, I’ve really enjoyed it as having a wide variety of informative sessions. This is my second time going and for 2 out of 3 of the sessions, I attended the Board Governance track. The following are my combined notes [...]
When pan-frying or oven-frying potatoes, put on salt at the end. Salt will draw out moisture during cooking and keep the potatoes from crisping. - from Eric Martin while he was cooking delicious breakfast-potatoes.
I was really happy with the feedback I received from my last article“Should I get a nonprofit job?” The responses I got, some of which you can read in the comments, helped me focus the message I was trying to convey: A nonprofit job is not the only way to make a living and make [...]
On Slashdot today was an entry about Google Search if it was designed for Google. Basically redesigning the page for a higher pagerank. Fun, but the interesting thing was a comment from the comments: Should read: What if Google was a useless site… …and had to design for Google? Lets see… counter examples… how about [...]
I recently had an idea for a story and upon going through my other drafts, realized I already addressed it, though differently. So here they both are. Also, the second story is not a criticism of the Buddha—though if you asked me, “Surgeon General” is a more apt description than “Great Physician”—or Jesus for that [...]
I have a lot of friends and acquaintances considering a job in the nonprofit sector. I’ve been employed within small (under $2 million budgets), community nonprofit organizations for three years now, beginning straight out of college, but have also talked to many people with many different experiences and histories in the sector and outside of [...]
At work I have been furiously engaged in strategic planning in advance of some major grant-writing. This process is a continuation from some vine-withered efforts my coworker and I had made last fall, but due to some changing circumstances—a better understanding of the existing processes at play and increased authority to manage the outcomes—this most [...]
I don’t know if it’s my empathy for the myriad of people I know stymied in technology quagmires for good causes or a desire to combine my love of good food with my job, but this is the result. Download a printable PDF perfect for tacking to your wall or the wall of whomever makes [...]
