Turn Off Cable News. Listen to StoryCorps Instead.

April 5, 2017

Media companies need to get and keep our attention. The more people they can attract, and the longer they can hold them, the more money they can make from ads. Cable news channels, on air 24×7, know that a cheap way to maintain our attention is to make us angry and scared. A tried and true tool in their arsenal is to show people shouting at each other. Turn off the TV and use the time you save to do something useful. Or better yet, just listen to NPR’s StoryCorps. It will put you in a far better state of mind, enhancing your ability to do things that will have a positive impact on your life, not to mention the lives of people you care about. I’ve embedded a clip in this post of a father and daughter, who are on opposite ends of a political divide, having a badly-needed conversation. … More Turn Off Cable News. Listen to StoryCorps Instead.

My Online Learning Experience: Back to School & Into the Future

March 25, 2017

I took the MIT Fintech Certificate Course: Future Commerce. Take this class if you want good feedback on writing a fintech business plan, would like to add “MIT” to your LinkedIn profile, and if you, or your employer, have $2,600 to spare. Because it’s completely online, you can take this 12-week class from anywhere while working a full-time job. You should expect a workload that’s a little more than a typical college course. I learned something completely separate from the course’s subject matter: Online learning can and will play an indispensable role in education. … More My Online Learning Experience: Back to School & Into the Future

“The Internet of Money” Will Take You On a Tour of Important Bitcoin Topics

January 19, 2017

Andreas Antonopoulos is a heck of a smart cookie, a great speaker, and one of the world’s leading bitcoin experts. The eleven chapters that make up his book, The Internet of Money, are the transcripts of selected presentations Andreas gave over the past few years. The publisher edited the transcripts to improve readability and to correct inadvertent errors. … More “The Internet of Money” Will Take You On a Tour of Important Bitcoin Topics

I didn’t “reach out.” I sent a fricken email!

December 11, 2016

Sprechen sie coporatisch?

As a business associate recently told me, “We reached out to him because we’ve been reaching out to everyone over there… blah blah blah… OK, I’ll wait until you try reaching out again. If he doesn’t get back to you, I’ll reach out to him.” It not only bugs me that “reach out” is a trendy term, but it also never goes away. In other words, it’s a stale trendy term. It also reminds me of “reach around,” which of course makes me think of that scene from Full Metal Jacket. … More I didn’t “reach out.” I sent a fricken email!

“Digital Gold” Tells the Story of Bitcoin from Outlaws and Anarchists to Wall Street and Winklevoss

December 10, 2016

Digital Gold tells the story of Bitcoin from Satoshi Nakamoto’s 9-page 2008 white paper through 2015. It’s fun to read. The characters in this true story are the ideologues, outlaws, millionaires, entrepreneurs, power brokers, geeks and a few oddballs who made Bitcoin the first viable, global and digital currency. Nathaniel Popper, a New York Times columnist, wrote Digital Gold. It was difficult for me to put the book down. … More “Digital Gold” Tells the Story of Bitcoin from Outlaws and Anarchists to Wall Street and Winklevoss