July 2013 – The Art of Doing

Think Like a Bug: How to Know Your Enemy

It’s a tough world out there, and the competition is fierce. Here’s how some of the world’s greatest leaders—Charles Darwin, Sam Walton, Jack Welch, Arianna Huffington, Madonna—have embraced the challenge, and one-upped the other guy.

IT’S A TOUGH WORLD OUT THERE, AND THE COMPETITION IS FIERCE. HERE’S HOW SOME OF THE WORLD’S SUPERACHIEVERS HAVE EMBRACED THE CHALLENGE, AND ONE-UPPED THE OTHER GUY.

At a fourth of July barbecue, New York Times reporter, William J. Broad marveled at his hosts’ ability to keep mosquitoes at bay with an unlikely weapon–an electric fan.

Curious as to how his hosts had come up with the idea, in a story for the New York Times, the reporter traces the dissemination of the information all the way back to its originator, a Philadelphia businessman, who told him, “The solution came from trying to think like a bug, and realizing ‘I don’t like flying into a 15 mph wind.’” Since mosquitoes are weak flyers that clock in at a pokey 1 to 1.5 mph, the blow-‘em-away theory works.

This think-like-a-bug philosophy reminded us of the adage, “Know your enemy.” We’ve all heard the maxim, “Know your customer,” but that will only get you so far if part of your mission is to dominate or defeat a condition, say, Barbecue Host vs. Mosquitos or Big Pharma vs. the Big C. Or if your mission, in large part, involves dominating or defeating a rival as in Coke vs. Pepsi or Instagram vs. Vine. Sometimes for you to win your rival has to lose. So in a world of fierce competition, why do recent studies suggest that business managers who think-like-their-enemies are in the minority? Continue reading “Think Like a Bug: How to Know Your Enemy”

What Makes Laura Linney Act?
It’s the Story, Stupid

Laura Linney, interviewed in “The Art of Doing,” reveals who she’s really acting for.

Laura Linney in her Golden-Globe winning role in "The Big C" — Laura Linney in her Golden-Globe winning role as Cathy Jamison in “The Big C”

When we interviewed Laura Linney for a chapter on “How to Act” in our book, we asked the award-winning actress:

“Who are you acting for?”

And then we waited. A long time. We had to stifle the urge to blurt out helpful suggestions. As the seconds of silence turned into minutes (hours in interview time), we wondered if Linney had misunderstood our question or been offended.

It turned out that she was actually thinking, not pretending to think as sometimes happens when you talk to a famous person who is feeding you lines because that is what their publicist told them to do.

When Linney finally did respond—a full two minutes of tape time later—her answer wasn’t at all one we would have expected. She wasn’t acting for her audience, her fellow actors, directors, producers or even her late father, the playwright Romulus Linney, as we had suspected. No. She wasn’t even acting for herself. Continue reading “What Makes Laura Linney Act?
It’s the Story, Stupid”

Do You Know Where You’ll Be 285 Days From Now
at 2 P.M.? These Data-Masters Do

Microsoft researchers have developed a mobility prediction system that knows where you will be, even years down the road. What does this mean for the future of business?

This screenshot of Far Out’s visualization tool shows mobility patterns of one of the study subjects living in the Seattle metropolitan area. The colored triangular cells represent a probability distribution of the person’s location given an hour of a day and day type.

MICROSOFT RESEARCHERS HAVE DEVELOPED A MOBILITY PREDICTION SYSTEM THAT KNOWS WHERE YOU WILL BE, EVEN YEARS DOWN THE ROAD. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS?

Would you like to know how crowded your drive to the beach will be in three weeks? Or where your ex will be on a Friday night next month so that you can avoid him?

Adam Sadilek, formerly of Microsoft, and John Krumm, a principal researcher at Microsoft, were inspired by the question of predicting where people would be in the future and even led off with the query, “Where are you going to be 285 days from now at 2PM?” in their their paper, Far Out: Predicting Long-Term Human Mobility.

“At first glance,” the researchers told us, “it sounds like a very difficult problem.”

Sadilek, Krumm, and others have done a lot of research on predicting where a person might be in the immediate future–say, in an hour or two. Logically enough, it’s been found that a person’s previous location is a good clue for their next location. But as these models are extended into the future, they give poorer and poorer results. To guess with any accuracy where someone would be in 20 or 200 days would be more of a challenge. In order to do so, Sadilek and Krumm realized, they’d have to develop new techniques. Continue reading “Do You Know Where You’ll Be 285 Days From Now
at 2 P.M.? These Data-Masters Do”

The Google Doodler

The satirical set of diagrams that illustrated the lead business section in the story in The New York Times last Friday was the work of a french designer at Google who doodles in his off hours.

ManuCornet OrgCharts — Illustrated by Manu Cornet (2011)

THE SATIRICAL SET OF DIAGRAMS THAT ILLUSTRATED THE LEAD BUSINESS SECTION STORY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES LAST FRIDAY WAS THE WORK OF A FRENCH SOFTWARE ENGINEER AT GOOGLE WHO “DOODLES” IN HIS OFF HOURS.

We were curious about what led Manu Cornet, who works on Google’s Gmail, to create this set of six company culture diagrams that made its way around the Web back in 2011 before resurfacing last week as New York Times art work. How, we wondered, did Cornet come to envision Apple’s corporate structure as a pinwheel and Microsoft’s as a show down at the OK Corral?

So we asked him. And he said:

“I always keep a long list of illustration ideas though I don’t have much time to draw them. I must have been thinking about one of those company’s structures and thinking how Apple with Steve Jobs (before he passed away) must really be centralized to allow him to pretty much have the final word on all matters. So I started imagining a circular structure with Jobs at the center.”

From there, Cornet wondered: What would other companies’ cultures look like? Continue reading “The Google Doodler”

Art of Doing EVENT: Washington D.C. at Politics and Prose

“The Art of Doing” reading and book talk at Politics and Prose in Washington D.C., Saturday July 20, 2013 at 6 PM

Join us for an afternoon in Washington D.C. where we’ll be talking SUPERACHIEVERS and ways to think about success, reading from the book and signing copies at:

Politics and Prose

5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

On Saturday, July 20 at 3:30 PM

Buy “The Art of Doing” here. Signup for “The Art of Doing” free weekly e-newsletter. Follow us on Twitter. Join “The Art of Doing” Facebook Community. If you’ve read “The Art of Doing” please take a moment to leave a review here.

Opera Diva Anna Netrebko: An Artist’s Interpretation

Opera’s reigning diva is as practical as she is passionate.

The Face of Modern Opera

Opera, as an art form, is nearly 500 years old with a parade of famous and infamous divas. Competing for attention in today’s celebrity-driven entertainment culture, the opera world has pinned its hopes on its latest star Russian-born soprano Anna Netrebko, who we had a fascinating interview with on “How to Be a Diva” for our book.

For our project, Art of Doing Artist’s Interpretation, we asked Russian artist and illustrator, Yvetta Fedorova to imagine Netrebko for us. Fedorova’s bold rendition captures Netrebko’s iconic status as an operatic superstar while weaving her quotes—which range from the practical to the passionate—into Netrebko’s tresses. [Click on the image to enlarge.] Continue reading “Opera Diva Anna Netrebko: An Artist’s Interpretation”

The Stories We Tell

Storytelling is among the core principles of success among the superachievers we interviewed. How, why and to what effect we tell stories are also questions actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley explores in her riveting documentary, “Stories We Tell.”

Shaping a narrative is never easy. It’s often the hardest when it’s your own.

Think about the last time you had write a resume, a cover letter, a bio—one small, scant paragraph to encompass your life. You may have struggled to capture the essence of you and felt unsatisfied. But the ability to shape a narrative relevant to your goals really matters. There is power in the well-crafted tale whatever your goal may be—to create a brand, sell a product, promote a cause, or even get a job. It’s something we noticed among the dozens of remarkable people we interviewed for our book. We were impressed not just by the stories they told, but how they told them. Continue reading “The Stories We Tell”