Yahoo! actually went on the offensive and claimed they weren’t going to kill Delicious but sell it, which makes me laugh, because no such thing could be true – the most glaring reason being that Yahoo’s authentication system infests every one of their properties, and a lot of people on Delicious are using Yahoo IDs. Another is that Yahoo are incompetent assholes.
Although he jumps around a bit and doesn’t complete some of his points, this is a nice little TED presentation from Jason Fried. (via mnmal)
Points I agree with:
Interruption-free environment: whether this is allowing employees to work remotely on occasion, setting rules in the office like “no-talk Thursdays,” or some other solution, give your employees time to do their jobs without interruption.
Fewer, better meetings: meetings are necessary. But not in the traditional format. Not all meetings have to be 30 minutes or an hour. Have a goal for your meetings, and accomplish it, with no other distractions or discussion points. If it takes three minutes to accomplish the goal, then your meeting is over after three minutes.
Focus on the real distractions: it isn’t Facebook or Twitter that’s keeping people from being productive. It’s the fact that they can’t access what they need to in order to do their job better, or it’s because a coworker or manager disrupted them while they were in the “zone.” Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, IM, etc. are all voluntary distractions. Managers and meetings (and coworkers) are involuntary distractions. Avoid them (or avoid being them).
Work stages are like sleep stages: for some workers, this might not be the case, but for many (knowledge workers, designers, etc.) this is spot on. It takes a while to get through the initial stages of a work session and really get into the zone. Sure, some can work well enough in short bursts, but we are missing out on the best they have to offer if they are never allowed to get into the zone.
Watch this video, then do what you can to provide a better working environment. Arguments and comments are welcome, of course!
I’ve owned the Kindle for about three weeks now. It’s still primarily an Instapaper reader for me. Mainly because I’m hesitant to buy a digital version of a book that I can’t share with others, especially when I can get a used, hard copy for cheaper than the Kindle edition in most cases. Also, I can’t use it at my library.
So, while I really like the device, I’m frustrated by my lack of options for sharing and purchasing books.
I knew all of this before I made my purchase, and I’m still using the heck out of it. But, as I mentioned, it’s primarily for web articles, oddly enough.
Rumor has it Amazon will allow sharing, but only for 14 days (not bad, but not long enough) soon. I wish Amazon was more open about their plans for Kindle and the community aspect (and potential) of the device.
Stephen also has some good questions from the view of a librarian.
The title of the post is “How to Transform Your Readers’ Experience”. Yet when I visit the site, I get a popup ad to sign up for his newsletter. Well, my experience was transformed, alright, into “I will not read this article now and will blacklist your annoying pop-up ad site.”
