Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life; much of the quality of your life depends not on fame or fortune, beauty or brains, fate or coincidence, but on what you choose to pay attention to

Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life Paperback

by Winifred Gallagher  (Author)

Acclaimed behavioral science writer Winifred Gallagher’s Rapt makes the radical argument that much of the quality of your life depends not on fame or fortune, beauty or brains, fate or coincidence, but on what you choose to pay attention to. Rapt introduces a diverse cast of characters, from researchers to artists to ranchers, to illustrate the art of living the interested life. As their stories show, by focusing on the most positive and productive elements of any situation, you can shape your inner experience and expand your world. By learning to focus, you can improve your concentration, broaden your inner horizons, and most important, feel what it means to be fully alive. Read more of this post

Epictetus on How to Live and the Ability to Choose

Epictetus on How to Live and the Ability to Choose

by SHANE PARRISH on OCTOBER 7, 2013

The Enchiridion (“The Manual”) is a short read on stoic advice for living. Epictetus’ practical precepts might change your life.

What’s in our control and what’s not

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions. Work, therefore to be able to say to every harsh appearance, “You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be.” And then examine it by those rules which you have, and first, and chiefly, by this: whether it concerns the things which are in our own control, or those which are not; and, if it concerns anything not in our control, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you. Read more of this post

Edison and the Rise of Innovation (Foreword by Bill Gates, Authored by Leonard DeGraaf)

Edison and the Rise of Innovation [Hardcover]

Leonard DeGraaf (Author), Bill Gates (Foreword)

Publication Date: October 1, 2013 | ISBN-10: 1402767366 | ISBN-13: 978-1402767364

Edison presents, in intimate detail, the man who helped engineer the modern world. One of history’s most prolific inventors, and perhaps America’s first celebrity, Thomas Alva Edison did more than bring incandescent light into every household and industry; he created a world-renowned brand, raised capital to support research and business, and pursued patents for his 1,000+ inventions. Leonard DeGraaf, archivist for the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, chronicles Edison’s life and work, making lively and lavish use of never-before-published primary sources, including Edison’s personal and business correspondence, lab notebooks, drawings, and advertising material, along with both historic and modern photographs. Read more of this post

Napoleon’s Fatal Mistake; Given an independent command, they acted well, especially if his orders were explicit and the task reasonably simple. But on their own, they tended to be nervous, looking over their shoulders, unresourceful in facing new problems he had not taught them how to solve

Napoleon’s Fatal Mistake

by SHANE PARRISH on OCTOBER 9, 2013

“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
— Victor Hugo

France of the 1790′s provided an ideal place for Napoleon Bonaparte’s unlikely rise to the top. Paul Johnson explains in Napoleon: A Life:

It demonstrated the classic parabola of revolution: a constitutional beginning; reformist moderation quickening into ever-increasing extremism; a descent into violence; a period of sheer terror, ended by a violent reaction; a time of confusion, cross-currents, and chaos, marked by growing exhaustion and disgust with change; and eventually an overwhelming demand for “a Man on horseback” to restore order, regularity, and prosperity.

Napoleon epitomized opportunism. Read more of this post

Drinking With Your Eyes: How Wine Labels Trick Us Into Buying

Drinking With Your Eyes: How Wine Labels Trick Us Into Buying

by MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF

October 11, 201311:05 AM

Shelf pop: Brilliant red ink and an arresting illustration make Scarlett stand out in a sea of Napa cabernet sauvignons. A splash of gold adds richness and elegance.

We’re all guilty of it. Even if we don’t want to admit it, we’ve all been suckered into grabbing a bottle of wine off the grocery store shelf just because of what’s on the label. Seriously, who can resist the “see no evil” monkeys on a bottle of Pinot Evil? But the tricks that get us to buy a $9 bottle of chardonnay — or splurge on a $40 pinot noir — are way more sophisticated than putting a clever monkey on the front. A carefully crafted label can make us think the bottle is way more expensive than it is, and it can boost our enjoyment of the wine itself, says David Schuemann of CF Napa Brand Design, who has been designing wine packaging for more than a decade. In his new book 99 Bottles of Wine, Schuemann spills the industry’s secrets about how wine labels tickle our subconscious and coerce us into grabbing a bottle off the shelf. The book is also a feast for the eyes, with about 100 photographs of the sleekest, most eye-catching winelabels in the business. Read more of this post

Is Music the Key to Success? What it is about serious music training that seems to correlate with outsize success in many diverse fields?

October 12, 2013

Is Music the Key to Success?

By JOANNE LIPMAN

CONDOLEEZZA RICE trained to be a concert pianist. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was a professional clarinet and saxophone player. The hedge fund billionaire Bruce Kovner is a pianist who took classes at Juilliard. Multiple studies link music study to academic achievement. But what is it about serious music training that seems to correlate with outsize success in other fields? The connection isn’t a coincidence. I know because I asked. I put the question to top-flight professionals in industries from tech to finance to media, all of whom had serious (if often little-known) past lives as musicians. Almost all made a connection between their music training and their professional achievements. Read more of this post

Slaying The Dragon And Other Ways To Create Killer Content Narratives

SLAYING THE DRAGON AND OTHER WAYS TO CREATE KILLER CONTENT NARRATIVES

THE “MERE EXPOSURE EFFECT” COMPELS PEOPLE TO LIKE SPECIFIC CONTENT SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE FAMILIAR WITH IT. HERE’S HOW TO TELL A SUCCESSFUL STORY.

BY: DUKE GREENHILL

There is a system for successful storytelling. Actually, there are many systems. Sometimes we call them platforms. Sometimes we call them structures. Sometimes we call them strategies. But they’re all essentially the same. They’re the framework we deliberately select to support what we hope will be a successful story. Whether the metric of success is shares, comments, views, clicks, albums sold, box office receipts, or artistic immortality, the systems are there. While content marketing, social marketing, and native advertising are new media of sorts, in their most fundamental ways, they are no different than the stories we’ve been telling each other since the dawn of humankind. Read more of this post

How To Become As Interesting As Malcolm Gladwell

HOW TO BECOME AS INTERESTING AS MALCOLM GLADWELL

KNOW WHAT YOUR PERSONAL BRAND COULD REALLY USE RIGHT ABOUT NOW? A BEST SELLER.

BY: DRAKE BAER

To be made into an adjective is probably the closest to immortality that any of us are going to get–and every time Malcolm Gladwell comes out with a new book, we’re reminded of the writer’s everlasting ability to remain interesting. But what is it to be “Gladwellian”? With the release of his new book, David and Goliath,we can see that the adjective summons constructive criticism, as in Slate, GQ, andTime. And when the New York Times asked him how he feels when a book is called “Gladwellian,” he said: I’m flattered, naturally. Although I should point out that it is sometimes said that I invented this genre. I did not. Richard Nisbett and Lee Ross did. Aside from setting us scrambling for the work of Nisbett and Ross–who authored The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology, a book exploring how our individual identities are so dang socially contextual–Gladwell’s answer on the question “Gladwellian” still feels incomplete. Read more of this post