Word Cloud – The Art of Doing

Inside the Mind of Mark Frauenfelder:
A Blogger’s Word Cloud

A Word Cloud based on our interview with Mark Frauenfelder, co-founder and co-editor of BoingBoing, the iconoclastic blog, for a chapter in our book on “How to Create One of the World’s Most Popular Blogs.”

Frequency is the currency of a word cloud. The more a word is repeated, the larger it appears in the cloud. Click here to see the interactive version.

This word cloud is based on our interview with Mark Frauenfelder, co-founder and co-editor of one of our favorite blogs (for a chapter in our book on “How to Create One of the World’s Most Popular Blogs). Frauenfelder’s iconoclastic BoingBoing (whose motto is Brain Candy for Happy Mutants) has been firing out a melange of digital innovation, DIY creations and wacked-out art for a decade and a half. (Already in blog years, several life cycles long.) What we see in Frauenfelder’s word cloud is his focus is not on market share, metrics or SEO, but on building a community of people by writing interesting and amazing posts rooted in real life that will connect with the reader.

Simply put, as Frauenfelder told us: Continue reading “Inside the Mind of Mark Frauenfelder:
A Blogger’s Word Cloud”

Inside the Mind of David Chang:
A Restaurateur’s Word Cloud

What does it take to make a great restaurant? From this Word Cloud, based on our interview with David Chang, chef/owner of Momofuku restaurant group, for our book, “The Art of Doing,” we can see what matters most to this award-winning Korean-American restaurateur.

Frequency is the currency of a word cloud. The more a word is repeated, the larger it appears in the cloud. Click here to see the interactive version.

What does it take to make a great restaurant? From this word cloud, based on our interview with David Chang, chef/owner of Momofuku restaurant group, for our book “The Art of Doing,” we can see what matters most to this award-winning Korean-American restaurateur. Rather than the reality TV caricature of a pathological screaming chef, Chang’s focus on words such as ‘work,’ ‘love,’ ‘good,’ ‘care,’ ‘make,’ ‘hard,’ ‘great’ and ‘open’ reveal his obsessive devotion to food as well as those who prepare and eat it. His concern for co-workers, customers and all that occurs within his kitchens and what goes out of them borders on the religious. His words even hint at the feelings of a doting mother serving her family. Is it any wonder that the combination of Chang’s priestly devotion, his culinary brilliance and killer work ethic is impressing critics, attracting talented staff and feeding a growing number of happy customers in country after country?

Read our story on David Chang and “The Secret Ingredient for Success” in The New York Times here. Check out artist/illustrator Scott Menchin’s Art of Doing Artist Interpretation of David Chang here.

Buy the book here. Follow us on Twitter here. Join “The Art of Doing” Facebook community here.

Inside the Mind of Constance Rice: A Civil Rights Activist’s Word Cloud

Frequency is the currency of a word cloud. The more a word is repeated, the larger it appears in the cloud. (Click to enlarge image above.)

From this word cloud, based on our interview for our book with Constance Rice (author of Power Concedes Nothing, cousin of Condaleeza), we can see what matters to her most. What you won’t find are the warm and fuzzy words—“compassion,” “nurture” and “help.” Rice is fighter. She’s battled and won $2 billion to improve L.A.’s public transit system, $1 billion to build 147 new schools. She’s negotiated gang truces and effected profound change within the LAPD. And she’s done this at times confronting, at times partnering with, the most powerful forces in Los Angeles—lawyers, politicians, gangs, LAPD and the entrenched bureaucracy. Rice told us rather than to fight for justice one person at a time,

“If you see a need for change you have to ask yourself, ‘Who has the power to get it done?’ Sometimes it’s the voters. When it comes to gangs, it can be gang members and their communities. When it comes to police reform, it’s the police.”

Inside the Mind of Tony Hsieh: An Innovative CEO’s Word Cloud

If you can’t see image click here

Frequency is the currency of a word cloud. The more a word is repeated, the larger it appears in the cloud. (Scroll over the cloud for full effect.)

From this word cloud, based on our interview with Tony Hsieh, we can see what matters most to him. The words “PROFIT,” “MONEY” and “SHOES” are so small that you’d hardly guess that Hsieh is the CEO of Zappos the largest online shoe store in the world. But the super-sized words, “VALUES,” “CULTURE” and “PERSONAL,” offer us a clue into Hsieh’s thinking. His ultimate goal is not to sell shoes but to create a network of people who share common values and seek a higher purpose. In other words, for Hsieh, Zappos’s billion-dollar shoe business is a means to end. He could just as easily be helming an organic chicken farm or a biotech firm.

Hsieh told us,

“All great companies have a vision that encompasses a higher purpose beyond profits or being number one in the market. And the irony is that the higher purpose enables these companies to generate more profits than their peers.”

Inside the Mind of Philippe Petit: A Highwire Walker’s Word Cloud

philippe petit highwire artist — Photo: Kent Barrett

Frequency is the currency of a word cloud. The more a word is repeated, the larger it appears in the cloud. And so, from this word cloud, based on our interview with iconoclastic highwire artist Philippe Petit, we have a window into his thinking and what matters most to him. His words describe physicality, adventure and Petit’s poetic balancing act between life and death.

Scroll over the cloud for full effect. (If no cloud appears click here.)