Can’t view the video? Click Here for the YouTube version.
There are 8 seats left for the September 18th Work the System workshop at our house here in Bend, Oregon. First come/first serve, as usual. Systems mindset talk, your questions answered.
For a period of exactly 5 days, from precisely 12 noon PST on Thursday August 26th to 12 noon PST on Tuesday the 31st, anyone can download my entire book in pdf format for free. Instructions will be simple, highlighted on the front page of the site.
The above video clip is a short excerpt from the workshop I did here in Bend last November. The production was a problem (the bottom of the screen in the background bisects my head! Arrggh! My systems mindset went brain-dead). So I didn’t release the video. This is a perfect example of making “the big mistake.” We had put the workshop together in order to create a video that would encapsulate the Work the System method. Lots of preparation, and the production was $3,000. With relatively short-notice, 65 people attended from all over the country. But, paying attention to a thousand other details, I depended too much on the third-party production people and failed to take 20 seconds to see for myself how the main camera had me framed. In any case, re the video, some people have told me to stop being so finicky about it and just turn it loose. So I will soon release the full seven hour program on disk and let it go for a very low price. I’ll let you know when it’s available.
I’m trying to build my mailing list. If you feel charitable today, please pass this website address on to your friends. Thanks!
Explore the space. Don your golden underwear. There’s always time for more cowbell.
Check out Teevee Aguirre. He’s in Dallas. Great minimalist website. Worked from the bottom up. No TV at home. Manager and aspiring public speaker. Single father of two very cute kids. Fine writer. I like this guy.
Movie: Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts. See it: Relax and pay attention. Nice to see a chick flick that didn’t ruthlessly beat up men. (Guys: Sometimes the movie is a bit schmaltzy, but it’s worth it. I attempted to balance out the schmaltz by immediately seeing The Expendibles with Sylvester Stallone, but found it harsh/forgettable.)
Reading Return to Prosperity, Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. Mandatory reading.
My friend Matt Strong sent me this Trevor Ginn essay, The Fallacy of the Great Idea. Being a pragmatist, I would add my flavor of practical advice to Trevor’s brilliant piece: There is an enormous opportunity out there in small existing businesses that have a great product/service but are struggling due to poor management. Go here for more about this, my video series with Seth Hosko and David Walsh.
Is this a hoax? Anybody have an opinion? In any case, there must be some profound life-lesson here. Thanks to Dennis Hanson for yet another view of a system gone very wrong.
Richard Adams has a fine lifestyle design website. This post, I especially like. Life IS your oyster, dudes and dudettes….
Thanks to A. Robson in the UK for this Amazon review of my book. He so gets the systems mindset. I’d thank him personally but can’t find his address, or even his full first name. (To “A”: If you get this, will you contact me at info@workthesystem.com?)
Social status, polluted skies, green efforts: The bikes of Beijing.
Testimonies of the Disconnected, Nicholas Carr. Pretty much every post he makes has practical meaning. Carr’s got a life-system and it’s centered around simplicity and clear thinking.
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Great to read a nice little catch up, and good to see you still staying so involved with making life better through the systems mindset. It’s been over a year I think I could use a refresher on the book. I’m gladly blasting out the site to friends now who could use a bit more systems work in their life!
Reading Laffer’s books is all well and good, but remember that his ideas have little real-world application and in the United States in 2010 are demonstratively false.
Alex: History and current events both validate Laffer’s contention that lower taxes mean more overall revenue for the government due to higher private sector activity. As a small business owner paying more than 50% in taxes to the Oregon and Federal government, I watch my personal incentive to invest in my business drop. And I watch myself devise ways to hoard cash as a buffer to impending doom. We can’t tax and spend our way to prosperity. I am amazed that the current administration and a sizeable chunk of the population think that government can do anything efficiently.
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