Back in the autumn of 2006 I offered some guy named Andy my two cents on blogging and then gave him a nudge and introduced him to readers here.

A couple of years and hundreds of insightful/witty/bizarre posts later he’s got a big fancy business book and is on his way to becoming a best-selling author. Pow!

The guy is Andy Nulman, former president of Just for Laughs, current boss at Airborne Mobile, snazzy dressy, random shouter, and devout user of the Comic Sans font in emails. And the book, just out, and with forewords by comedians John Cleese and Craig Ferguson, is Pow!… more

Last month when in Vegas for CES I took the opportunity to catch a couple of Cirque du Soleil’s permanent shows, Love and O. One disappointed and one amazed.

As a Beatles fan I’d been dying to see Love ever since its launch. I heard good reviews from friends and quite enjoyed the soundtrack – blended mixes of the classic tunes re-produced by Sir George Martin and his son Giles. Staged at an impressive venue within The Mirage, it was clear that Love was designed to overwhelm. Beatles + Vegas + Cirque… everything about it is big. And, from watching a making-of documentary about it, there were clearly some big egos and big expectations involved as well.… more

“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Grammys.”

Grammys, you’re idiots. You actually put on a decent show last Sunday — including a brilliantly awesome performance of “15 Steps” by Radiohead with the USC Trojan Marching Band! — and now you go and pull it from YouTube. This is how you fade from relevance. When will you morons learn how this internet thing works? Too late, probably.

Anyhow, grab the torrent (it’s better quality anyway) or take a peek at the rehearsal. This rendition of “15 Steps” is truly fabulous.… more

Romeo Dallaire is a Canadian senator, humanitarian, author, and retired lieutenant-general. He is best known for the position he was assigned to in 1993: Force Commander of UNAMIR, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda. Responsible for the UN forces mandated to maintain order in the country yet left powerless by the UN itself, Dallaire witnessed firsthand the grisly bloodshed of the Rwanda genocide.

Dallaire wrote a book – Shake Hands with the Devil – about the experience, which has since spawned documentaries and a feature film. He continues to advocate strongly for human rights and for a more widespread understanding that all humans are human.… more

Two of the foundational elements of creative generalism — both of which I’ve noted here before — are these: 1) that Creative Generalist is a ying-yang sort of term in which the the executional focus of creativity is balanced with the big picture oversight and broader ideation of generalism, and that 2) corporate leaders need to be Creative Generalists. Essentially, this is also the central thesis of David Aaker’s recently published new book Spanning Silos: The New CMO Imperative.

Aaker, a giant in the field of branding and marketing theory, argues that decentralization has spawned powerful product, country, and functional silos which jeopardize companies’ overall marketing efforts.… more

To those of us living in the deep freeze of winter, the heavenly sun-swept photos coming from Tourism Queensland are tempting indeed. Their latest marketing campaign, The Best Job in the World, is a stroke of genius. They’ve posted for the position of Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef, a job that supposedly comes with a paradise villa, AUD$150k salary, and mandate to simply enjoy life and blog about the area. Brilliant.… more

A belated happy new year to my faithful readers.

I’ve not posted for a while because I’ve been especially busy – first in a lazy laid-back way during the holidays and then, last week, as a presenting exhibitor at the gigantic Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

It was my first CES and although most vets found it to be quieter than in past years (due to the economy, of course) it’s still really really big and busy. I spent much of the sleepless week presenting, speaking, interviewing, and running around schlepping but I did have a little bit of time to wander around and see what the world of gadget makers are up to.… more

An interesting thread at Ask Metafilter pondering the question, “Is it possible to be a polymath these days?“.

I especially like this particular response:

Aristotle and DaVinci were incredible, but they didn’t know everything. People are (rightly) so impressed with them, they base “what one should know” on what they knew. So of course it seems like they knew everything.

What did Aristotle know about cooking? Did he know how to make a sculpture? How much did DaVinci know about Africa?

There have been times when the topics studied at universities (or through other formal methods of teaching and learning) were relatively small compared to how many there are now.… more

I received a friendly email from Brian, the Director at a cool summer camp for kids and teens called Beam Camp. It’s a 4-week summer program (July 18-August 16) for boys and girls aged 7-17 in Strafford, New Hampshire. They’re looking for some big collaborative ideas. Here’s the overview and how you can participate:

Beam Campers cultivate hands-on skills in the fine and manual arts while exploring innovative thinking, design and the creative process. They transform ideas into artifacts and personal achievement into community success.

Each summer Beam commissions a Project Master to design a unique large-scale collaborative endeavor that campers produce and enjoy.… more

(via Savage Chickens)

Thanks for yet another great curious and creative year. Season’s greetings from Creative Generalist!… more