I referenced a photo story on the Gentlemen of Bakongo before. Well, now there’s a book.

I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Meh. Not a whole lot fascinating about it. A few points I thought worth writing down.

• “In transplanting the paesani culture of southern Italy to the hills of eastern Pennsylvania, the Rosetans had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world.” [currentblend co-op]
• “practical intelligence” – knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.
• autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward…the three qualities that work has to have to be satisfying.

I’ve had Radical Honesty on my bookshelf for a couple years now and will periodically pick it up to read different portions of it (I’ve tried to read it straight through, but just can’t for some reason). Anyway, here’s a great article from Esquire on the author and the writer who tries to put it into practice. My two cents on this: I think this is great and try practice it with some regularity. Makes life easier, but you need to have some tact in your presentation.

“Slowly dies, he who does not travel, he who does not read” – P. Neruda

I never got around to picking up a copy of Infinite Jest for the Infinite Summer project. After reading Kottke’s post on How to Read Infinite Jest I’m kicking myself. I swear I will read this thing.

If you do any type of presenting I highly recommend picking up a copy of Presentation Zen. While you’re at it, check out Garr Reynolds website, www.presentationzen.com. My highlights from the book follow.

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I’m late to the game on this one, but finally finished reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. Overall, it’s an interesting read (with some interesting points I’ve highlighted below), but it didn’t really revolutionize anything for me. I may have been a little too aware of the “plot” since it’s been released for a while. Here’s the link to the wired article that started it all. (If I had to to it again, I’d save yourself some time and just read the article, and not the book)

One interesting thing is my timing of finishing this book just as Anderson’s book Free has been getting some reviews. Malcolm Gladwell, Fred Wilson, Seth Godin and Mark Cuban have all weighed in on his new book.

• there’s more to creativity than Hollywood hits, and people who can strike a chord can come from anywhere, via any path
• a company’s brand is not what the company says it is, but what Google says it is.
• “We are leaving the Information Age and entering the Recommendation Age. Today information is ridiculously easy to get; you practically trip over it on the street. Information gathering is no longer the issue — making smart decisions based on the information is now the trick…Recommendations serve as shortcuts through the thicket of information, just as my whine shop owner shortcuts me to obscure French wines to enjoy with pasta”
• There does now seem to be a natural connection between mavens, who know a lot and like to share their knowledge and blogging.
• (on the 80/20 rule) The 80 and the 20 are percentages of different things, and thus don’t need to equal 100

Ben Casnocha delves into Tyler Cowen’s new book Create Your Own Economy with RSSted Development. With the 300 or so RSS feeds I read, I’m pretty sure this book is something I’ll have a serious interest in reading.

A side note…I just remembered I picked up Cowen’s other book Discover Your Inner Economist last week in Vancouver.

I finally got around to reading The Blind Side (it’s being made into a movie) by Michael Lewis. I wasn’t blown away like I was with Moneyball, but if you like Lewis’ writing (which I do) and sports (again, I do), you’ll enjoy this book. It follows the journey of Michael Oher (who was drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft – wish the Bengals took him) and uses his story to demonstrate the importance of the Left Tackle in football, aka the blide side. Not a lot of quotables or anything, but the book left me with a real interest in finding out more information about Bill Walsh (his strategies, philosophy, etc) and the term “systematic opportunity”.