Digital Roam

Inside Guy's Brain

One of the really great unexpected outcomes of getting your book published is that other publishers send you advance copies of their upcoming books for review and (hopefully) positive comments. I suppose it shouldn't have come as a surprise since my publisher did the same thing for my book, but it has been fun to collect a nice stack of pre-release business books.

I make a point of reading each book that I receive, thinking not only about the karma involved but also recognizing how lucky I am to see some of what's coming out before many other people get to. Besides, it's a tremendous honor to be asked, and I figure I owe it to the other authors to do my part.

The only problem is that it takes time to really read everything that comes in and formulate an opinion about it that's worth sharing. Which means I sometimes fall behind on getting my comments in on time.

That's what happened with Guy Kawasaki's new book REALITY CHECK: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition. I got an advance copy three weeks ago, put it on the "to read" stack, finally read it, LOVED it (more on that in a moment), drew up a 'cover blurb' that I really mean, and sent it back to the publisher... only to find out they'd already printed the book!

Yikes. Good timing, Dan.

So back in that karmic mood, let me present here for the first time my never-to-be-published blurb for Guy's latest:

Now I know what they mean when they talk about "encyclopedic knowledge".
They mean Guy Kawasaki. This book is the proof.
- Dan Roam

This book is amazing. It really is a complete encyclopedia of everything anyone starting a start-up needs to know about money (and where to get it), planning (more rather than less is the ticket), marketing (I think I finally understand what that means), and succeeding (or failing magnificently, which according to Guy is almost as good).

What I found best about the book was that although it contains way too much to ever fully process (much less remember), everything is presented in short sections, category by category -- which makes it easy to find exactly the guideline you need when you need it.

I wish my timing had been better: this is really a book I'd have liked to have a picture on!

Life mimics cartoon

Every once in a while you come across a cartoon in The New Yorker that just has to be lifted. I saw this one in last week's copy while flying home from a workshop. It so well summarized my life that I had to share it. Of the two images below, can you tell which one is the cartoon?

Picturing the panic (several visual lessons in what went wrong with Wall Street)

The last many weeks have been a field day for people around the world to unleash their inner stick figure. As everyone from market analysts on Wall Street to truck drivers on Main Street struggles to describe what is happening in the global economy, we see more "solving problems with pictures" than at any time in memory.

Of the dozens of clips and links that people have sent me, here are my four favorites so far. (Warning: some of these are longer than they need to be, some more superficial, and some more crude, but all are worth the few minutes they take to watch.) Think of this as a fifteen minute crash course in global economics, presentation design, and visual thinking -- all at the same time.

1) The Overview

Let's start with what I consider the best overall description of the origins of the meltdown and what is being done about it. Johannes Bhakdi's slideshow is plain brilliant, mapping out in simple charts how we got here, where we are now, and what comes next. (Note: if you replace Johannes' term "SIG" with "SIV" or "CDO" the pieces that follow will all fit together more clearly.)

2) It all started with sub-prime

Next, let's dive into more detail on how this whole thing got started through sub-prime mortgages and the lovely term "predatory mortgage lenders". In this extremely crude slideshow from an unknown author, we get a great sense of what got the snowball rolling. (If you are the author or know who he or she is, please let me know.)

3) How a few bad mortgages destroyed Wall Street

Next up is Steve Liesman's bloody battle with a flipchart on CNBC. Things get a bit messy, but it's wonderful to see Steve's "take-no-prisoners" approach taken out on a sheet of paper. (Full disclosure: I knew and worked with Steve many years ago in Moscow, Russia when he was a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and I ran an advertising agency. He's a very funny guy, even without the marker in hand.) Steve takes us through more details on sub-prime derivatives and why they exploded.

4) Why the panic isn't stopping (part of the reason, anyway)

Last, let's watch as senior economics analyst from Marketplace Paddy Hirsch exposes himself as the greatest whiteboard man since the UPS guy. As Paddy explains "naked shortselling", he gives the best example in years of how a simple picture drawn live becomes the most effective communication tool ever devised. Whether we fully understand short-selling after watching this or not (there still seem to me to be a couple mysterious moments in the process), it's the power of a simple picture that's the most important lesson.

Thanks to everyone who sent these and other links through. While it does appear that we're still only at the beginning of whatever this economic disaster is going to become, it's reassuring to know that the power of pictures will only increase.