From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
March 11, 2010 at 1:17 pm
There is a tremendous amount of fuzzy thinking around terms like "social entrepreneurship," "social business," and "socially responsible business." When people ask me what I think ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
March 9, 2010 at 9:59 pm
How many people whose lives we admire actually maintain a torturous inner life? How many ideal men and women -- and I don't mean perfect, I mean ideal, which is to say perfectly ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
March 8, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Alain de Botton recently blogged about "one of the challenges of our time": re-learning how to concentrate. To sit quietly and think without distraction. I agree, except I'm not ... (
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From
March 8, 2010 at 12:40 am
There are four articles of note in the latest Newsweek magazine.1. I wrote a brief personal piece on Chile. I mention other natural disasters that preceded Chile and conclude:The
... (
more)
From
March 6, 2010 at 12:43 am
“Incidentally, am I alone
in finding the expression ‘it turns out’ to be incredibly useful? It
allows you to make swift, succinct, and authoritative connections
between otherwise
... (
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From
March 5, 2010 at 12:52 am
To graduate from college students do not have to demonstrate anything whatsoever beyond passing grades. Students do not, for example, take a standardized test administered to
... (
more)
From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
March 3, 2010 at 2:52 pm
The craziest sentences uttered at the Vancouver Olympics came from Norwegian silver medalist Odd-Bjoern Hjelmeset describing his performance in the men's 4x10 cross-country relay:
"My ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
March 2, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Folks, we will return to regular programming here soon, and I want to talk at some point about the Chile situation more broadly, but let me quickly address some issues as the ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 28, 2010 at 11:22 am
This is a blow-by-blow dispatch of my Saturday. In subsequent posts I will offer a more analytical take on everything. Photos are from this incredible set of images on Boston.com ... (
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From
February 26, 2010 at 12:04 am
Culture Matters
All through childhood and adolescence you are a sponge absorbing cultural stimuli. From local billboard advertisements, to school curriculum stylized to your
... (
more)
From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 24, 2010 at 5:03 pm
From Jeffrey Goldberg's Q&A advice column in the Atlantic:Sometimes when we’re driving somewhere and silent for a while, my
husband will turn to me and ask, “What are you ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 23, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I enjoy tracking unusually evocative ways to describe human beings. In every long profile piece the journalist sets aside a few paragraphs to capture the person's physical essence ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 22, 2010 at 12:54 am
James Kwak's excellent post The Myth of Efficiency is rooted in the idea that for most professionals "the length of their workday isn’t set by a clock, but by their sense of ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 20, 2010 at 11:15 am
A few days ago there was a fight on an Oakland bus between a 50 year old black man and a 67 year old white man who was wearing a T-shirt that read "I AM A MOTHERFUCKER." ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 19, 2010 at 12:18 am
There were many fascinating comments to my previous post on drugs, and are evidence for why Cal Newport has called readers of this blog "freakishly smart."
Lindsey of Crooked ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 16, 2010 at 10:28 pm
I am an entrepreneurial, adventurous person hungry for new experiences. I enjoy experimenting. I am above-average in my appetite for risk. Why have I not done a single drug in ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 15, 2010 at 11:47 pm
In Chapter 1 of American Pastoral by Philip Roth, two gentlemen are having dinner, and one guy describes the other -- who's stunningly handsome, athletic, successful -- this way:I ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 13, 2010 at 1:44 pm
The elitism / populism issue is one of the richest themes right now in American politics.1. David Brooks on Charlie Rose a few days ago touched on it, at around minute 10:14. Until ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 11, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Malcolm Gladwell is a talented public speaker. One of the best, in fact -- $80,000 a speech. He looks so natural on-stage. He tells stories effortlessly. He self-interrupts, he ... (
more)
From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 10, 2010 at 8:46 pm
"When you find yourself hating someone (who did not directly hurt you) with blinding rage, know for certain that it is not the person you hate at all,
but rather something about ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 9, 2010 at 8:31 pm
"Americans care about privacy mainly in the abstract." - Jonathan Franzen
At a lunch the other week a successful entrepreneur who runs a large social network in Latin America ... (
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From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 8, 2010 at 10:06 pm
"The condom is...in its essence, a compromise: at the moment of greatest
potential pleasure, it interferes. It requires that the rush of desire
be interrupted, its course modified, ... (
more)
From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 5, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Marketing author Seth Godin, who I respect a lot, recently published a new book. I want to point out a theme in his blog interviews (which he did instead of a media tour; I haven't ... (
more)
From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 4, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Levi is an American traveler and talented writer who's riding his bicycle through Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Kenya. His dispatches from the road are worth following ... (
more)
From Ben Casnocha: The Blog
February 2, 2010 at 10:49 pm
A couple years ago Scott Adams laid out the keys to writing funny. It's excellent advice. A few up-front points about humor:
A company's or an executive's ability to deploy humor ... (
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