Book Notes: Made To Stick by Chip & Dan Heath
Since Heather got me my Kindle for Christmas I’ve really started to enjoy reading books on it. After all my big exciting New Years resolution was to start reading more books. Blogs are great, but you really need a book to get deep into concepts. What is really great about the Kindle is the ability to take notes right on the device. So instead of doing a traditional book review I’m going to share the notes I took from the book. So below are the notes from Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. — How do we find the essential core of our ideas? A successful defense lawyer says, “If you argue ten points, even if each is a good point, when they get back to the jury room they won’t remember any.” Research shows that mentally rehearsing a...
Pictures from PAX East
Last Sunday I went to PAX East with my buddy TJ. It was very much a nostalgia event for me. With all the hardcore gamers (all sorts of games) it reminded me a lot of back in the day when I used to spend hours creating D&D characters, mastering Super Mario Brothers or building a Magic: The Gathering deck. Even the Warhammer 40K games brought back some memories of the Space Wolves army I used to have. I really liked seeing some of the really old games but PAX East is definitely focused on the shiney new toys. Those shiney new toys are all about video games these days. The most interesting shiney new thing I saw was a working demo of Duke Nukem Forever. The idea that this game was coming out soon has been a running joke for a decade now. It looks like it...
Documentary Waiting for ‘Superman’ Tells A Sad Story On American Education
I just finished watching Waiting for ‘Superman’. I’d read good things about the documentary, but I had no idea that it would touch me the way that it did. I have always believed that if you want to change the world the way to do it is through education. Educated individuals don’t cause war, they don’t stay in poverty, go to jail or raise dysfunctional families at the levels of those that aren’t educated. The problems of the financial meltdown, high unemployment rates and worldwide conflict is mostly the fault of uneducated ignorance. The revolution in Tunisia was started by an educated individual setting himself on fire because of the injustices put upon him and his nation. Tunisia is actually a fairly well educated nation because of state provided...
Tornado T-3000: Who Wants To Play Foosball?
Last week was a very exciting week! Not only did I get engaged, but we also got a brand new Tornado T-3000 foosball table at work. Yes, I do get a little excited about a game of Foosball. The T-3000 is the rolls royce of Foosball tables! Back a decade ago we had an old metal French table in the fraternity house in college where we used to play games late into the night. Since then I’ve been hooked. When I first started at HubSpot foosball was a big deal. I mean we created a March Madness Foosball tournament with sixteen teams. There was only like 60 people at HubSpot back in those days. Foosball slowly died off to be replaced by competitive Ping Pong before making a huge comeback that should probably mostly be credited to Andy Pitre. This new table...
Book Review: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
Growing up I loved to read fiction, especially fantasy novels. I don’t know what happened but over the last five years it seems like the only thing I truly enjoy more is a great work of non-fiction loaded with explanations, facts and lessons learned. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond fits at the top of the list of must reads. When my friend Yoav Shapira first mentioned this book it sounded exactly like something right in the middle of this sweet spot. Afterall, this book is the winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction! Guns, Germs, and Steel tells the story of mankind over the last 11,000 years. This is the story of the domestication of man. If you have ever wondered why the ancient people of the Fertile...
Engaged: How It Happened and Lessons Learned
So for anyone who lives under a rock or simply doesn’t read Facebook/Twitter I got engaged last night! It was months in the planning and Heather was none the wiser throughout the experience. It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, but it feels like it’s time and this seems like a good story to tell. Also me being the teacher that I am it feels like I might be able to give some guys some advice about how to do this important moment in their lives the right way. Well, all this is simply my opinion and sometimes I’m full of it, but it might make an interesting enough story. Picking The Right Ring I am very much a traditionalist who likes to keep things simple. When I first went looking at wedding rings, completely unbeknown to Heather, over...
HubSpot Holiday Party 2010
Last night was the HubSpot holiday party. Somewhere along the way my job title expanded to include company photographer? It was a great night of fun and I was able to snap a few quality photos. A shoutout to John Marcus for letting me borrow is flash most of the night to get such great photographs. Also here is a fun little video. A couple of my co-workers share their hardcore Bostonian accents with the rest of us. Thanks Julie & Billy. Can you believe people think I talk...
Thanksgiving 2010 With The Family
It was good to go home for a few days and see the family. It was especially nice to see my nephew Bentley, who is quickly growing up. I took a few more pictures of him that I posted up on his website if you want to see the full...
Happy Halloween 2010
Not a whole lot to say. This photo just about sums it all up. I was just going for the look of a pirate, but some people thought I was Captain Jack Sparrow. You make the call. Photos taken by...
Golf Cart Ride With The Dogs – A Peachtree City Tradition
Peachtree City has a system of golf cart paths which spider across the town and provide a secondary means of access to almost any destination within city limits. These multi-use paths stretch for more than ninety miles throughout the city. Many places of business have specially designated golf cart parking spaces and the Peachtree City Police Department has several golf carts that patrol along the paths. Over 9,000 households own a golf cart, more than any other city in the world, and use them as an extra vehicle for local transportation. Don’t believe me you can read it on Wikipedia. This also also changes the way your dog riding to the store with you a little. I think the video speaks for...
Subscribe