Book Review: The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

I have a new perspective on both the importance of the Supreme Court and the Presidency after reading this book. I now get why the abortion topic is so important and controversial. I now get why Supreme Court nominees are put through such hell before nominations. And with the upcoming Presidential election, I get more than ever why it's so important to understand where the candidates stand on topics such as abortion, separation of church and state, Miranda, etc.

I really enjoyed this book because it focuses on the most recent 15 years of the court. I remember all of the big cases that are studied in the book, which made it a very entertaining read at times. The book does a good job of studying the backgrounds of all of the recent justices and their voting ideologies.


Thanks to Toobin, I will never look at another Supreme Court case or nomination process in the same way again.

Book Review: The Kite Runner

I rarely read fictional books, but with the start of the new year, I thought I would try to expand my library beyond non-fiction. I landed upon the book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" as one of the top 2007 books on Amazon.com. It was the sequel to the book "The Kite Runner", which also got rave reviews, so I decided to buy it first. It was a good decision. This is by far one of the most fascinating books I've read in a long time. I couldn't put it down and breezed through the 400 pages in just two weeks. An amazing feat for me because I only have time to read about an hour or so each day.

The book reads like a memoir. At times I would completely forget the book was fictional. He gives a great portrayal of what Afghanistan was like before and after the last 30 years of turmoil. Learning about the culture of the Afghani people was a great side-effect of reading the fascinating and wonderful novel.

I can't wait to read the sequel, it will definitely be part of my next Amazon.com book order.

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

I read blink on the plane ride to San Antonio and back this month. It's a page-turner that made the flight go by super fast. My favorite parts of the book are related to racism. The book talks about a great study being conducted by Harvard researchers. There is a test online that is fun to take that will provide a lot of insight into your own personal racism:

Race ('Black - White' IAT). This IAT requires the ability to distinguish faces of European and African origin. It indicates that most Americans have an automatic preference for white over black.

Racism is just one of several interesting topics covered in blink. If you liked "The Tipping Point" you'll love this book.

Book Review: Now, Discover Your Strengths

I actually read this one a long time ago. Every book comes with a code to take a test to discover and learn all about your strengths.

Here are my signature themes:

Achiever: People strong in the Achiever theme have a great deal of
stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and
productive.

Maximizer: People strong in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a
way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform
something strong into something superb.

Arranger: People strong in the Arranger theme can organize, but they also have a flexibility that complements this ability. They like to figure out how all of the pieces and resources can be arranged for maximum productivity.

Relator: People who are strong in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.

Learner: People strong in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.


How closely do you think they describe me?

Worst Thanksgiving Ever

I was looking forward to a full 5 days of getting things done...and then I was hit hard by a stomach bug that is just now clearing up. Thanksgiving and I can't eat?!? Terrible. I had plenty of time to think of random things though:

My new Blackberry 8830 kicks butt. I love it. If you need 24x7 access to your email, get one. Sprint is my new provider and I'm just as happy with them as I was with Verizon.

The Apple iPhone is for real (Velvet has one), a really great phone thanks to the awesome browser and zoom capabilities. I like the real keyboard on the Blackberry though.

I've been on Facebook for about a month now. I can see why they are so successful...automated emails. Their core is picture sharing, tagging, and commenting; all of the other stuff is just fluff.

I've been running Vista on my desktop at work for months now. I still get asked frequently "How do you like it?" I have to say that there's not one feature in Vista that is so awesome that would make me recommend upgrading from XP. But, it's not a bad OS. It doesn't crash, but all of the security pop-ups are quite annoying.

On the other hand, the latest version of Office is awesome. I highly recommend dumping Open Office or anything web-based.

And finally, we won the fall softball co-ed league C championship this year. If you remember last year's end of season blog post, I had a few suggestions on how we could get better. Well, we implemented all of those suggestions and we kicked butt. OK, maybe it wasn't my suggestions that took us over the top, but whatever it was we did awesome. We only lost 1 game all year, and we won almost every game by run-rule. It's amazing how far everyone has come and we'll be back in the B league starting next spring. We had a great time celebrating our wins at Buffalo Wild Wings after each game.

Antennas Direct

One of the annoying things about DirecTV is that local channels (NBC, CBS, FOX) are not available in HD. You have to receive them over the air with yet another antenna. You can either buy an indoor antenna that looks like the old rabbit ears and the signal rarely comes in reliably. Or you can buy an outdoor antenna and climb on the roof, install it, ground it, kill yourself, etc....a real pain, something I haven't been willing to take the time to do.

But, after helping my brother install his HD antenna I realized that the antenna he bought actually works really well indoors. We went ahead and installed his outdoors, but last week I bought one for myself to stick in my attic. As I'm sitting here watching football on FOX in HD I would have to say it works really well. The antenna wasn't hard to put together and is now completely hidden from view both inside and outside. I'm really pleased with the reception on all channels.

If anyone else is interested, I bought the "DB2" bundle found here:

http://www.antennasdirect.com/bundles.html

I can't wait for the Red Sox game tonight in HD!

Why Zappos is kicking butt

Velvet sent me this the other day...

http://www.zazlamarr.com/blog/?p=240

Amazing customer service. Word of mouth marketing at it's best.

Book Review: Differentiate or Die

Of the three Trout books I have read, this one is my least favorite. It's a good book, but if you have read "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" and "Trout on Strategy", this book very much reads like a broken record. If you haven't read the other two books, I think you will like this one immensely. Perhaps part of what makes Trout so good is that he is very consistent in his messaging.

My favorite chapters:

Chapter 4. Quality and Customer Orientation are Rarely Differentiating Ideas

"You can indeed use this as a strategy. But only if your competition is dumb enough to let you."

Chapter 6. Price is Rarely a Differentiating Idea

"But when price becomes the focus of a message or a company's marketing activities, you are beginning to undermine the chances to being perceived as unique."

Chapter 9. Differentiation Takes Place In the Mind

"First, the specialist can focus on one product, one benefit, and one message. This focus enables the marketer to put a sharp point on the message that quickly drives it into the mind."

Chapter 11. Attribute Ownership Is a Way to Differentiate

"Attribute ownership is probably the number one way to differentiate a product or service."

Chapter 12. Leadership Is a Way to Differentiate

"Leadership is the most powerful way to differentiate a brand."

Chapter 14. Market Specialty Is a Differentiating Idea

"People are impressed with those who concentrate on a specific activity or product. They perceive them as experts."

Book Review: The Tipping Point

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

“A fascinating book that makes you see the world in a different way.” - Fortune

“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”

Here are my notes on the first three chapters:

Chapter 1 – The Three Rules of Epidemics

1. Law of the Few

• “When it comes to epidemics...a tiny percentage of people do the majority of the work.”

2. The Stickiness Factor

• “Unless you remember what I tell you, why would you ever change your behavior or buy my product or got to see my movie?”

3. The Power of Context

• “Human beings are a lot more sensitive to their environment than they may seem.”

Chapter 2 – The Law of the Few

In order to start an epidemic you need three types of people:

1. Connectors

• Connectors are people with a special gift for bringing the world together. We rely on them heavily to bridge social circles. Connectors know lots of people. “They are the kinds of people who know everyone.”

2. Mavens

• Mavens figure out how to get the best deal, and they want to tell you about it too. Mavens want to solve other peoples problems, generally by solving their own.

3. Salesmen

• “The essence of Salesmen is that, on some level, they cannot be resisted.”

Chapter 3 – The Stickiness Factor

This chapter was a huge case study on the differences between Blues Clues and Sesame Street. It was fascinating and well worth the read. It shows the importance of stickiness and how small changes can make all of the difference in the world. As an avid watcher of both Blues Clues and Sesame Street I loved the examples.

The rest of the focuses on “The Power of Context” and some case studies.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is in sales, marketing, or is an entrepreneur.