Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
For Lent, I’ve decided to give up reading about digital fasts
Gosh, how I love digital fasts. And Lent 2011 has given us a bumper crop of digital fasters who now find 40 days without Facebook (or Twitter) more profound and painful than a month without booze, TV or smokes. Well, if they can live without us for 40 days (sniff!)...
How to sustain a social media presence in 3 hours a week
Feel like you don’t have enough time to create a meaningful social media presence? In this post I spell out my step-by-step process for creating and maintaining a high value, useful blog and Twitter presence in just (I mean it!) 3 hours a week.
10 things to do while waiting for your domain name to propagate
Most of the time the Internet does a very good job of creating the illusion that everything can now be instantaneous. You're on the phone with a colleague on the other side of the world, editing a Google Doc together, and the second you see that typo appear she...
5 steps to create your social media toolkit
Building a social media presence around a specific area of expertise is your best way to connect with a network and audience that cares about your work, and gets real value from your online contributions. This blog post walks you through the 5 steps that will get you up and running with three tools that will let you build and maintain a credible online presence as an expert: a Wordpress blog, a Google Reader account and a Twitter presence managed through HootSuite.
Fixed: Troubleshooting your Thesis upgrade to 1.8 from 1.6
The short version: Has your Thesis site gotten messed up after an upgrade? The problem may be as simple as some lost settings. Use Thesis Design Options to restore them to your previous or preferred choices. It won't take long so you don't need to panic. And don't...
The 5 requirements for a starter social media presence
What are the 5 factors that shape the investment you’re willing to make in social media? I hear about the same key considerations from a lot of people, so I’ve spelled them out as the requirements for the easy to set up, easy to maintain presence I will map out in this series.
How I do it: Internet edition
Twitter and the Temblor: Managing a social media emergency
Yesterday morning I gave a talk on social media to a group of Canadian government employees. The talk was organized…
Today on HBR: A hard look at the hard bodies promised by Tim Ferriss
My latest post for Harvard Business Review takes a hard look at hard bodies: specifically, the hard bodies promised by Tim Ferriss in his book, The 4-Hour Body. In the post I quote three experts I asked for insight into the book's recommendations: Dr. Tieraona Low...
Predicting the future of the “personal brand”
Yesterday Dan Schawbel published an interview with me on his Personal Branding blog. I have previously criticized the "personal branding" vogue both on this site and on my HBR blog, so I warned Dan he might be in for a rough ride! Much to his credit, he didn't shy...
The Harvard Business Review
For Lent, I’ve decided to give up reading about digital fasts
Gosh, how I love digital fasts. And Lent 2011 has given us a bumper crop of digital fasters who now find 40 days without Facebook (or Twitter) more profound and painful than a month without booze, TV or smokes. Well, if they can live without us for 40 days (sniff!)...
How to sustain a social media presence in 3 hours a week
Feel like you don’t have enough time to create a meaningful social media presence? In this post I spell out my step-by-step process for creating and maintaining a high value, useful blog and Twitter presence in just (I mean it!) 3 hours a week.
10 things to do while waiting for your domain name to propagate
Most of the time the Internet does a very good job of creating the illusion that everything can now be instantaneous. You're on the phone with a colleague on the other side of the world, editing a Google Doc together, and the second you see that typo appear she...
5 steps to create your social media toolkit
Building a social media presence around a specific area of expertise is your best way to connect with a network and audience that cares about your work, and gets real value from your online contributions. This blog post walks you through the 5 steps that will get you up and running with three tools that will let you build and maintain a credible online presence as an expert: a Wordpress blog, a Google Reader account and a Twitter presence managed through HootSuite.
Fixed: Troubleshooting your Thesis upgrade to 1.8 from 1.6
The short version: Has your Thesis site gotten messed up after an upgrade? The problem may be as simple as some lost settings. Use Thesis Design Options to restore them to your previous or preferred choices. It won't take long so you don't need to panic. And don't...
The 5 requirements for a starter social media presence
What are the 5 factors that shape the investment you’re willing to make in social media? I hear about the same key considerations from a lot of people, so I’ve spelled them out as the requirements for the easy to set up, easy to maintain presence I will map out in this series.
How I do it: Internet edition
Twitter and the Temblor: Managing a social media emergency
Yesterday morning I gave a talk on social media to a group of Canadian government employees. The talk was organized…
Today on HBR: A hard look at the hard bodies promised by Tim Ferriss
My latest post for Harvard Business Review takes a hard look at hard bodies: specifically, the hard bodies promised by Tim Ferriss in his book, The 4-Hour Body. In the post I quote three experts I asked for insight into the book's recommendations: Dr. Tieraona Low...
Predicting the future of the “personal brand”
Yesterday Dan Schawbel published an interview with me on his Personal Branding blog. I have previously criticized the "personal branding" vogue both on this site and on my HBR blog, so I warned Dan he might be in for a rough ride! Much to his credit, he didn't shy...
OneZero
Anticipating the virtual wedding
Today's Globe & Mail features a story about the "iPad bridesmaid": the woman who attended her friend's wedding via iPad. Since Renee Armstrong couldn't make it the wedding in person, a groomsman carried an iPad to which she was connected via FaceTime (Apple's...
Respecting the billable hour
Can I have $500? One of the interesting things about being a consultant or entrepreneur is that people ask you for that kind of money all the time. I was reminded of this recently while catching up with a friend who (unlike me) is still involved in the daily work of...
An online cure for an unsustainable model of leadership
Jack Layton's death has me thinking back over many years of NDP activism, going back to the very first campaign I ever worked on: Dan Heap's 1984 election campaign, when one of the most tireless presences in the committee room was that of Dan's young constituency...
The 6th tech-inspired kid failure: autotunitis
Last week I wrote about 5 tech-related kid failures. I somehow managed to leave out the one that is currently the biggest source of irritation in our house: autotunitis. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the disorder, autotunitis is a vocal condition afflicting...
4 great ways to use Evernote with Skitch today — plus 14 new possibilities
You know how happy you feel when you find out that two of your good friends have hooked up and are now a couple? That's how I felt yesterday when I heard that note-taking and information management powerhouse Evernote had acquired screen capture and image uploader...
10 essential iPad and iPhone apps for your next road trip
Packing list: 11 tech accessories for your web-enabled road trip
5 surprising facts about my OS Lion install
Last night I finally installed OS X Lion. What makes this surprising: I waited three whole weeks from the time of release! A new record of personal restraint in holding off from the pain and suffering of early adoption. The tipping point for me to finally make time...
JSTOR DAILY
Anticipating the virtual wedding
Today's Globe & Mail features a story about the "iPad bridesmaid": the woman who attended her friend's wedding via iPad. Since Renee Armstrong couldn't make it the wedding in person, a groomsman carried an iPad to which she was connected via FaceTime (Apple's...
Respecting the billable hour
Can I have $500? One of the interesting things about being a consultant or entrepreneur is that people ask you for that kind of money all the time. I was reminded of this recently while catching up with a friend who (unlike me) is still involved in the daily work of...
An online cure for an unsustainable model of leadership
Jack Layton's death has me thinking back over many years of NDP activism, going back to the very first campaign I ever worked on: Dan Heap's 1984 election campaign, when one of the most tireless presences in the committee room was that of Dan's young constituency...
The 6th tech-inspired kid failure: autotunitis
Last week I wrote about 5 tech-related kid failures. I somehow managed to leave out the one that is currently the biggest source of irritation in our house: autotunitis. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the disorder, autotunitis is a vocal condition afflicting...
4 great ways to use Evernote with Skitch today — plus 14 new possibilities
You know how happy you feel when you find out that two of your good friends have hooked up and are now a couple? That's how I felt yesterday when I heard that note-taking and information management powerhouse Evernote had acquired screen capture and image uploader...
10 essential iPad and iPhone apps for your next road trip
Packing list: 11 tech accessories for your web-enabled road trip
5 surprising facts about my OS Lion install
Last night I finally installed OS X Lion. What makes this surprising: I waited three whole weeks from the time of release! A new record of personal restraint in holding off from the pain and suffering of early adoption. The tipping point for me to finally make time...
THE VERGE
Win my love: The cheat sheet
I know that you are supposed to like or love people based on their character or their soul, but that shit takes a lot of time to figure out. It's much more efficient to quickly categorize people as loveable, likeable or deeply suspicious based on their surface traits....
Stop sibling conflict with a tech-inspired solution
Are you tired of listening to your kids argue? Does it seem like a single ill-timed comment can ignite a cascade of escalating attacks and complaints? Are you sick of playing referee? This weekend we came up with an innovative strategy for stopping the sibling...
Hey NSA, even my kids know snooping is creepy
This morning's breakfast conversation: ME: I'm feeling upset about how Barack Obama has been reading all the stuff we've been posting online -- everywhere except Twitter, which refused to cooperate. SWEETIE: That's creepy. ME: Good news, though -- I blogged your list...
8 kid-inspired features for Apple’s iOS 7
For the past couple of years, our kids' favorite bedtime stories have featured a feline protagonist whose best friend is Apple CEO Tim Cook. In each story, Tim Cook teleports this cat to Cupertino (Apple HQ), where Tim and cat work on various cat-friendly inventions....