I’m an avid fan of video games.  A few years ago that would have made me a social outcast.  But times they are a changin’ and video games have gone from obscure hobby to mainstream entertainment.  Virtually (no pun intended) everyone plays a video game whether it’s World of Warcraft, the Wii, or on Facebook.  When I play games I often feel compelled to chase after completely meaningless things.  For instance I put in more hours than I’d care to admit into a game called Diablo 2 just to get rare armor so I could brag about it to my ...

When I talk to various companies I am always intrigued by how they view working at home.  Some organizations readily embrace flexible hours and work from home.  But others treat working from home as evil.  As if the worst thing someone could do is spend time in comfort at their house (or apartment, or coffee shop, or, well you get the idea). The argument against working from home tends to revolve around “building relationships” and “being seen” at the office.  Both of these are good things, and work-from-home proponents tend to gloss over how important they are.  But a lot of ...

With all of the privacy changes to Facebook and the growing ease of finding people online, one of the growing areas of business is something called “online reputation management.”  The idea behind it is simple: you want to control how people see you online.  We probably all have embarrassing pictures of ourselves from some point in our lives (mine mostly involve the chicken pox).  Do we really want a future employer to see that? So companies are making a lot of money offering services to “manage your online ...

One of my goals this year is to streamline my life.  I know… me and everyone else.  But this year I am finally serious.  I have way too many projects to keep track of, and if I don’t streamline I will be crushed.  Metaphorically speaking I hope. Naturally this means I’ve been looking at everything through an inefficiency standpoint.  What is wasteful?  What adds time and uselessness to my life?  What detracts value? Trendnet does.  You see I bought a wireless internet card from them (which I love).  But it came with a rebate.  Now I understand the whole purpose of the ...

Most of us don’t have the luxury of working from home.  Most of us are still trapped in the cubicle farms or factory floors.  Of course that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  But many times it is.  Besides all of the usual hassles and issues of working with others (to err is human!), there is something I think we overlook – noise. I was thinking about that today as I was having a hard time concentrating.  In my current consulting role I spend a lot of time in a cubicle.  Why?  Because sometimes there is no better way to ...

Even in the days of instant email, instant videos and instant oatmeal, some things are just too slow. this weekend I ordered a new mouse for my computer.  My old mouse, which I have owned for more than a decade, finally died.  So after much deliberation I finally settled on a Logitech G500.  I had considered a more expensive Logitech mouse, but decided it wasn’t worth the $30 or $40 difference. Well Amazon “knew” I was looking at mice and today sent me an email announcing a sale for ...

"All too often education actually acts as a form of aversion therapy, that what we're really teaching our children is to associate learning with work and to associate work with drudgery so that the remainder of their lives they will possibly never go near a book because they associate books with learning, learning with work and work with drudgery. Whereas after a hard day's toil, instead of relaxing with a book they'll be much more likely to sit down in front of an undemanding soap opera because this is obviously teaching them nothing, so it is not learning, so it ...

A while back we discussed the benefits of Realistic Job Previews.  Well not everyone works in industry and hires employees.  Sometimes what we really need to do is bring in volunteers.  This is the case for churches, political campaigns, community outreach and a wide variety of other activities. As anyone who's lead volunteers knows, one of the hardest things to do is keep them motivated and committed.  Part of this challenge comes from the volunteers themselves.  They lead busy, hectic lives with wives, boyfriends, kids, friends, work etc....  Sometimes the last thing they can ...

There is a reason books like the Purpose Driven Life and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People sell in huge numbers.  People want to understand why they are here.  They want to know what their purpose is.  They want to make a difference. No one grows up thinking, “if only I could be a failure.  Then my life would be complete.” Meaning is a life-long journey that we all strive for.  Some of us find it.  Some of us look for it our entire lives.  And some of us have given up a long, long time ago. So what does this mean for ...