Comments for Business Explained by Stever

Comment on The future of social media: pay content, gossip management by Kathryn Brockman

Kathryn Brockman — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:14:08 +0000

I think this is an excellent reality-check about social media and its promises. When people are accustomed to getting something for free, there’s seldom any retreating.

Business and internet marketing courses promote SM but most instructors are paid to use them.

Read virtual pioneer Jaron Lanier’s take: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/07/business/la-fi-hiltzik7-2010feb07

Comment on Customer service requires substance and style by Tweets that mention Business Explained by Stever » Blog Archive » Customer service requires substance and style -- Topsy.com

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:26:52 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ed Borasky, Eric Harris, Stever Robbins, Julie Frizzo Barker, Joe Soto and others. Joe Soto said: Do you provide customer service? Make sure you provide substance *and* style. Article here: http://su.pr/2Uc4MY (via @GetItDoneGuy). [...]

Comment on Richard St. John’s TED Talk on Success. Is it nothing but delusion? by David Feldman

David Feldman — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:43:49 +0000

Its called the Narrative Fallacy. For anything that happens, people will naturally generate a story that explains what caused the action to happen. Even if the thing that happened was completely random, constructing an explanative narrative ex post facto will result in a very plausible story. Unfortunately, that story will not necessarily be true.

There is an interesting book, “The Black Swan” about how randomness interacts with everyday stories, particularly financial in nature. The author, Nassim Taleb, is unbelievably obnoxious but has a lot of good things to say. I recommend it.

Comment on Richard St. John’s TED Talk on Success. Is it nothing but delusion? by Ryan Dawidjan

Ryan Dawidjan — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:05:05 +0000

Interesting thought,

Having watched that same video before, I never looked at it from that angle. I’m intrigued by the Halo effect and will pick up Rosenzweig’s book. Is the Halo effect partly due to the culture surrounding success? Do the more times we hear a successful individual credit a supportive family/friends, or a lucky break make us more likely to send those same messages if we were being interviewed?

On the note of the high school experiment, their are going to be “Outliers”, those who are extremely “successful” (ex. rich finance people) but their success is due to the fact that they grew up in a certain time period, inherited a family business, were lucky enough to be born into a middle class family that valued education, etc.. Just read Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers and highly recommend it. It gives you a new perspective when looking at “success” and the outliers of today’s society.

Thanks, Ryan Dawidjan [ryandawidjan.posterous.com]

Comment on What does a CEO do, anyway? by Brantley Foster

Brantley Foster — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:18:58 +0000

I wanted badly to become a CEO and for a very long time ever since I saw the 1987 film, The Secret of My Success with Michael J Fox. It was about this kid working in a mailroom and ending up in the boardroom. That resonated with me because at the time I was working in a mailroom. I envisioned myself as that characted. Unfortunately instead of taking that fast track to success, I got on the slow train to nowhere with no stops.
Me a CEO, yeah that dream died a horrible death.

Comment on My psyche was just hijacked by a sweet sounding, marketing demoness! by Wizard Prang

Wizard Prang — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:05:47 +0000

Well Said.

If they want your Credit Card number, IT’S NOT FREE.

If someone is trying to sell you something they are not “giving back”.

Comment on Are people good or bad? It’s literally a self-fulfilling expectation. by Tweets that mention Business Explained by Stever » Blog Archive » Are people good or bad? It’s literally a self-fulfilling expectation. -- Topsy.com

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:00:23 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stever Robbins, Eric Harris. Eric Harris said: RT @GetItDoneGuy: Do you believe people are good or bad? There may be objective reasons why it becomes self-fulfilling! http://su.pr/2ELAAi [...]

Comment on A modest proposal for rescuing the auto industry by Wendy Kinney

Wendy Kinney — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:46:22 +0000

Three points:

1—“condition: we auction off the CEO jobs at Ford, Chrysler, and GM. The highest bidder gets the job. They receive a total compensation package equivalent to a shift supervisor at one of their plants.”

This sounds like government. The biggest war chest wins. There are perks with everything.

2—Thomas: “let the free market fix the problem. You’ve got my vote. Thank you.

3—Stever: “paying people” for more fun reading on this check out Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. Short podcasts give the nuggets. The book is great.

Comment on A modest proposal for rescuing the auto industry by Stever

Stever — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:29:05 +0000

Just saw this TED video, in which Dan Pink relays the results of decades’ worth of social science research (or so he claims). In brief, paying people to do creative tasks that require innovative thinking is NEGATIVELY correlated with their subsequent performance at innovative thinking. The more you pay them, the less they perform. Flies in the face of conventional management wisdom (and economic wisdom, for that matter), but neither the managers nor the economists have done much reading of the real-world evidence of how motivation works.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

Comment on American Express usury highlights an economic culture gone very, very wrong. by Bruman

Bruman — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:52:39 +0000

Amex is now ripping me off royally. I missed a payment date by two days, but they jacked my interest up to 24.2% and won’t put it back down until I’ve had a year of on-time payments. A year of punishment for the crime of an absent-minded mistake, after having their card for 20 years. This is how Amex treats their loyal customers. So, I canceled my Merchant services, retail relationship agreement in retaliation. They could not care less! These guys get government handout TARP funds at less than 1% and turn around and charge people 24%. It is really sick.