Nathan Zeldes – Thinker, Speaker, Problem Solver
Blog. Insight, issues, opinions and productivity solutions
Enounce MySpeed: a Highly Recommended Time Saving Tool
The problem with video I am ambivalent about video instruction. On one hand, it adds a richness unavailable by other channels. On the other, it takes time to view – and, unless I need to learn how to perform emergency brain surgery, a written paragraph is faster to read by myself than watching a talking head read it to me. With text, you can skim and jump around – it’s a Random Access medium; video is inherently serial and limited by the average person’s verbal speed. With time an increasingly precious resource in our hectic age of information overload, wasting.. Read more
New Insight Article: Intrapreneurship – How to Do It and Live to Tell the Tale
I’ve spent a long career as a change agent in a large corporation, even if at first I didn’t call the role by that name; it just so happened that I was always trying to execute my “day job” in ways that pushed the envelope and made my employer adopt novel practices and directions. It was an exhilarating career path, though not without its frustrations. I know how exciting, how rewarding – and how difficult Intrapreneurship can be. In my latest insight article I share some reflections on the practice of intrapreneurship, and give you my take on how you.. Read more
The Advantages of Flexible Careers in the Enterprise
I know a woman who has a PhD in biology, but now makes a living as R&D manager in a small electronics firm. And doing a great job, evidently. That’s flexibility for you. Used to be, if you studied biology, you’d be a biologist, and that was that. For most people, that’s the way it still works; but if you look around you’ll see a sizable minority of people who simply don’t care – they do a great job at whatever they feel competent to do. Me too, I suppose – I studied applied physics, went into forensic science and.. Read more
The Legitimacy – or Otherwise – of Ultra-brief Emails
A devious solution to email overload A friend pointed me to a post that offered a simple and highly unusual solution to email overload: change the signature block on your desktop email client to read “Sent from my iPhone”. The idea, the writer explained, is that this will make you “feel more comfortable offering short, direct, and concise replies to incoming emails, thus improving your email productivity and freeing up time to do other more important work”. This is certainly devious, is probably effective, and the logic seems unassailable… but it raises a question: why would you need it? Surely.. Read more
How to Secure the Isolation You Need to Be Effective
The acclaimed American novelist Jonathan Franzen has an unusual way of ensuring he can concentrate and be creative. To quote the NY Times: Some days, Jonathan Franzen wrote in the dark. He did so in a Spartan studio … behind soundproof walls and a window of double-paned glass. The blinds were drawn. The lights were off. And Franzen … wore earplugs, earmuffs and a blindfold. Kudos to the Franzen for being a touch typist, but here I want to focus on his statement: “It’s very, very hard to concentrate. You have to hold your mind free of all the clichés”… Read more
CAPTCHA: A Wonderful Adventure in Exhibition Space
Somehow my career has repeatedly led me into doing unexpected and wonderful things. One such piece of serendipity has been the role I landed at the Jerusalem Science Museum as the curator of an exhibition in honor of Alan Turing. This project took a year and half, and gave me the occasion to work with some amazing people at the museum, interact with many more from around the world, and learn so much about that tragic genius, Alan Turing, of which I wrote here before. Now we’re finally done, and the exhibition is open to the public. It wasn’t my.. Read more
How to Create Memorable Lectures
Lecturing has been one of my passions ever since I first entered the workforce 35 years ago. Wherever I was employed I’d volunteer to deliver lectures every chance I had: to fellow employees, to new hires, to visitors, to students, at conferences – and now that I’m self-employed I also do it for a living (though I still can’t resist volunteering to lecture for free if it’s in a good cause). I’ve delivered hundreds of talks on VLSI technology, Technical Leadership, Internet adoption, Information Overload, Social Media, the History of Computing, Innovation, Quality Assurance, Science… and it turns out that.. Read more
Responses to Common Objections to Telecommuting
I’ve already posted my thoughts about Marissa Mayer’s announcement banning telecommuting at Yahoo. Since then I’ve noticed how – after the initial indignation had abated – writers across the blogosphere and media started raising arguments taking Ms. Mayer’s side. Some of them make sense, but many confuse problems with telecommuting with problems in company culture and management competence. Having battled many similar objections when I was championing this cause at Intel years ago, I can’t resist weighing in on the side of reason… and so should you when considering allowing your employees to work from home. Here goes, then: Objection.. Read more
What Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer May Be Missing About Telecommuting
Last month there was a big hoopla when Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, issued a ban on Work from Home by the company’s employees. Like troops retreating into the castle, Yahoos have been recalled to the office. All over the planet the media and blogosphere are abuzz with criticism and counter-criticism about what was seen as a regression from the reigning paradigm of workplace flexibility and Work/Life balance. Even the irrelevant fact that Mayer is a woman and a mother was used by some who painted her as a traitor to her gender. As a veteran driver of Telecommuting, let me.. Read more
