You’ve heard of the 5 W’s–who, what, when where and why–possibly in relation to writing or analyzing news stories or press releases. The 5 W’s are also applicable to choosing keywords and sites for AdWords keyword or site-targeted advertising. For example, considering how these five dimensions relate to potential customers for CaRP (my RSS to […]

We are all consumers. If we stop consuming, we die within days. But some of us are more conumption oriented, and some more production oriented. Would you rather use your free time blogging, building a table, or writing a poem or a computer program, or watching TV, going to a movie, eating, or shopping?
Not to […]

Zeno’s paradox: motion is impossible, because to go from one place to another, you have to first go half way. Then to go the rest of the way, you have to first go half way, and so on, so you never quite get there. In fact, you can never get started, because before you can […]

People have always tended to see the world in their own image. However advanced our powers of empathy may become, our own opinions and perceptions remain more prominent in our consciousness than those of others. Lately, I’ve noticed that the illusions in my world seem to be growing stronger–more completely crowding out the part of […]

If you want to fly, you don’t do it by wishing, jumping higher, or beating the earth into submission till it acquiesces and turns gravity off for you. You do it by finding a way within the laws of nature to create sufficient lift to overbalance the force of gravity. It doesn’t matter whether we […]

Personal liberty is one of the great ideals upon which U.S. society is founded. Liberty of thought and belief are critical to the preservation of a free society. Freedom of expression and of the press are necessary to protection of them. But freedom of action must often be constrained to preserve a civil society. No […]

The hardest problems to solve are those that are caused by unsolved problems. Thus, sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to address some other problem. Taking the time to find the root of a causal chain can be the difference between treating the cause and treating the symptoms.
Let’s say you want to […]

I used to think that mobile homes were universally trashy places that only people with no shame would deign to inhabit. Then, after a six month contracting stint during which I earned a lot of extra cash, I bought a mobile home and have lived in it for four of the last five years. I […]

This entry first appeared in a blog I called “The Mobius Life”:
Many things in life that look different are, like the sides of a mobius strip, actually the same. And sometimes things that look quite similar are in fact completely different. The Mobius Life explores things that aren’t what they seem at first glance.
The original […]

While working on the predecessor site to The Professional Network, my brother with whom I was collaborating quoted some wise person saying that “perfect is the worst enemy of good enough.” In other words, once something is good enough to do the job it’s designed for, the worst thing you can do is to keep […]