Jose’s Book List #2

June 19th, 2006

My Art Center students often ask me to share what books I am reading. I promised to put up a new list.
For the sake of full disclosure I wanted to note that I read in two ways.

1. A regular pulp based book. I do this less often.

2. Audiobook on my iPod. I do this while bike riding or while driving in L.A. The latter makes traffic on the 10 going to the westside much easier to cope with.

So I will start with the recent pulp based books I have read:

1. A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age
Author: Daniel H. Pink (Signed by the Author)

2. Little Red Book of Selling
Author: Jeffrey Gitomer

3. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Author: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Audio Books. If you haven’t seen Audible.com you should check it out. If you end up signing up and buy something make sure you say I referred you. My user name is: zuzio

1. The Google Story
Author: David A. Vise and Mark Malseed

2. Never Eat Alone
Author: Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz

3. Blink
Author: Malcolm Gladwell

4. Eboys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work
Author: Randall E. Stross

5. The Second Coming of Steve Jobs
Author: Alan Deutschman

6. Goals! How to Get Everything You Want Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible
Author: Brian Tracy

7. All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories In a Low-Trust World
Author: Seth Godin

8. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century Part
Author: Thomas L. Friedman

From all of these there are 2 that I highly recommend:

If you are a creative and you have always wanted to know what makes creative people tick read Creativity:Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
It gets a bit dry through some parts because it is based on a research study. But it has some great insights into the creative mind and process. One that THE_GROOP has always believed in is that great creativity is not only the domain of visual artists it also includes science, technology, music, film etc. Also that creativity often comes from collaboration. There is no such thing as the “Singular Genius”. Collaboration is key.

The second is The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
It expanded my understanding of how global commerce works. Knowing how business works is half the battle.

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The No TV at Home Experiment: Week 2 & 3

June 9th, 2006

Ok its about time I did an update on my experiment.
So here is a brief run through weeks 2 & 3

Week 2
By week two we were beginning to get adjusted to not having a TV(s). I did start spending a bit more time in the office playing video games.

Aside from that the highlight of this second week was learning how to watch a movie on a laptop with great sound. Connecting the stereo and all that jazz. I would like to figure out a good computer based entertainment solution. Maybe a 20 inch iMac or a Mac Mini with a large LCD. Who knows. Let me know if you have an suggestions.

The question of secondary screens still came up. Does replacing the “boobtube” with the “Interweb/portable media players” really count as “not having a tv”?
At the end the conclusion was that for the purposes of the experiment the goal was not to have the traditional form of programming offered by TV/Cable. But everything else was game.
The challenge was posed; “to get rid of all forms of screens” in the house.” I am not sure if I am ready for that yet but lets see.
The process of discovering new things to do, in addition to being more productive at work is quite enjoyable.

The one thing that we have missed is that “alpha coma” that TV provides. At the end of the day its great to come home and watch some really bad TV and fall asleep watching Conan.
By the end of the week that “alpha” had been replaced by some good old fashion conversation. Until 2 am.

Week 3
All the media consumption on my laptop has its toll. My drive died this week. Made it hard to do much, less doing and update on the “experiment”. Took my Powerbook to Apple Saturday and spent the day golfing. Thank God I had backed up fully before a week before.
I lost some stuff, but not much. In this process I realized that my laptop only had a 4200 rpm drive in it. I am going to need to order a 7200 rpm drive or wait until I upgrade to a Macbookpro.

But back to the experiment. Good week. Having a clean drive forced me to spend some time cleaning house on my laptop and installing and playing with some new software. I also made the full switch to Firefox. Which has been quite nice.

Though am listening to more music I am still not watching to much on my iPod. I seem to do it mostly when I am in the car (parked) and have a few minutes free. I blast the car speakers and sit back and watch The Office or Channel Frederator.

Made some great progress on the Liberty City Stories on the PSP. Likewise on San Andreas on the Xbox. Now that there is no TV in the house I am trying to really catch up on the gaming. The downside is that there is still very little time to do this and run a company. So again its all about sneaking 20 minute here and hour there. At this pace I will finish San Andreas in 2012.

I will update you on week 4 soon. It involves going to my brothers wedding. A surprise discovery while flying Jetblue to the wedding.
And what was it like having a TV with regular programming in the hotel. Stay tuned.